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Choyce 

DROLLERY: 

SONGS & SONNETS. 

BEING 

A Collection of Divers Excellent 
Pieces of Poetry, 

OF SEVERAL EMINENT AUTHORS. 



Now First Reprinted from the Edition of 1656. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED THE EXTRA SONGS OF 

MERRY DROLLERY, 1661, 

AND AN 

ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY, iftx: 

EDITED, 

With Special Introductions, and Appendices of Notes 

Illustrations, Emendations of Text, & c . t 
By J. Woodfall Ebsworth, M.A., Cantab. 



BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE • 
Printed hy R ohert Roberf ^ Stmit Bar . Gate 

MjDCCCLXXVI. 



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TO THOSE 

STUDENTS OF ART, 

AMONG WHOM HE FOUND 

JFrfenitsftfp anti dEntfrngiasfm; 

BEFORE HE LEFT THEM, 

Winners of Unsullied Fame, 

AND SOUGHT IN A QUIET KOOK 

Content, instead of Renown : 

THESE 

" DROLLERIES OF THE RESTORATION" 

ARE BY THE EDITOR 

DEDICATED. 



> 



CO NTENTS 



PAGE 

DEDICATION V 

PRELUDE ix 

INTRODUCTION TO "CHOICE DROLLERY, 1656 " . xi 

§ I. HOW CHOICE DROLLERY WAS INHIBITED . xi 

2. THE TWO COURTS IN 1656 . xix 

3. SONGS OF LOVE AND WAR . . . .XXVI 

4. CONCLUSION : THE PASTORALS . . XXXiii 

ORIGINAL "ADDRESS TO THE READER," 1856 

" CHOYCE DROLLERY/* 1656 I 

TABLE OF FIRST LINES TO DITTO . . . .101 

INTRODUCTION TO "ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELAN- 
CHOLY," l66l 



§ I. REPRINT OF "ANTIDOTE" ..... I05 
2. INGREDIENTS OF "AN ANTIDOTE" . . I08 

ORIGINAL ADDRESS "TO THE READER," l66l . .Ill 

„ CONTENTS (ENLARGED) . . . .112 

"ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY," l66l . .113 



vm. 



PAGE 

EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT TO DITTO : § I. ON THE 
"AUTHOR" OF THE ANTIDOTE. 2. ARTHUR 
O' BRADLEY l6l 

"WESTMINSTER DROLLERIES," EDITION 1674 : 

EXTRA SONGS. 1 77 

" MERRY DROLLERY," l66l : 

PART I. EXTRA SONGS 

„ 2. DITTO 

APPENDIX OF NOTES, &C, ARRANGED IN FOUR 
PARTS : 



195 

233 



1. "CHOICE drollery" . 

2. "antidote against melancholy" 

3. "westminster drollery," 167i-4 

4. § I. "MERRY DROLLERY," l66l . 

2. ADDITIONAL NOTES TO " M. D.,' 

3. SESSIONS OF POETS 

4. TABLES OF FIRST LINES 



FINALE 



67O 



259 
305 

333 
345 
37i 
405 
411 

423 



IX. 



PRELUDE. 

Not dim and shadowy, like a world of dreams, 
We summon back the past Cromwellian time, 
Raised from the dead by invocative rhyme, 

Albeit this no Booke of Magick seems : 

Now, — while few questions of the fleeting hour 
Cease to perplex, or task th' unwilling mind, — 
Lest party-strife our better- Reason blind 

To the dread evils waiting still on Power. 

We see Old England torn by civil wars, 
Oppress'd by gloomy zealots — men whose chain 
More galled because of Regicidal stain, 

Hiding from view all honourable scars : 

We see how those who raved for Liberty, 
Claiming the Law's protection 'gainst the King, 
Trampled themselves on Law, and strove to bring 

On their own nation tenfold Slavery. 

So that with iron hand, with eagle eye, 
Stout Oliver Protector scarce could keep 
The troubled land in awe ; while mutterings deep 

Threatened to swell the later rallying cry. 

Well had he probed the hollow friends who stood 
Distrustful of him, though their tongues spoke praise 
Well read their fears, that interposed delays 

To rob him of his meed for toil and blood. 



X. 



A few brief years of such uneasy strife, 
While foreign shores and ocean own his sway ; 
Then fades the lonely Conqueror away, 

Amid success, weary betimes of life. 

So passing, kingly in his soul, uncrown'd, 
With dark forebodings of th' approaching storm, 
He leaves the spoil at mercy of the swarm 

Of beasts unclean and vultures gathering round. 

For soon from grasp of Richard Cromwell slips 
Semblance of power he ne'er had strength to hold ; 
And wolves each other tear, who tore the fold, 

While lurid twilight mocks the State's eclipse. 

Then, from divided counsels, bitter snarls, 
Deceit and broken fealty, selfish aim — 
Where promptitude and courage win the game, — 

Self-scattered fall they ; and up mounts 
KING CHARLES. 

June 1st, 1876. J. W. E. 



XL 






EDITORIAL 



INTRODUCTION 

TO 

CHOICE DROLLERY: 

1656. 

Charles. — " They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and 
a many merry men with him ; and there they live like the old 
Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock 
to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the 
golden world." CAs You Like It, Act i. sc. 1.) 

CHOYCE D 

E may be sure the memory 
of many a Cavalier went 
back to that sweetest of 
all Pastorals, Shakespeare's 
Comedy of "As You Like 
It," while he clutched to 
his breast the precious little 
volume of Choyce Drollery, 
Songs and Sonnets, which 
was newly published in the year 1656. He sought 
a covert amid the yellowing fronds of fern, in some 
old park that had not yet been wholly confiscated 
by the usurping Commonwealth; where, under the 
broad shadow of a beech-tree, with the squirrel 



§ I 


CHOYCE D. 










w 


tlWerWihS 









XU. INTRODUCTION. 

watching him curiously from above, and timid 
fawns sniffing at him suspiciously a few yards distant, 
he might again yield himself to the enjoyment of 
reading " heroick Drayton's " Dowsabell, the love-tale 
beginning with the magic words " Farre in the Forest 
of Arden " — an invocative name which summoned to 
his view the Rosalind whose praise was carved on 
many a tree. He also, be it remembered, had "a 
banished Lord;" even then remote from his native 
Court, associating with "co-mates and brothers in 
exile " — somewhat different in mood from Amiens or 
the melancholy Jacques ; and, alas ! not devoid of 
feminine companions. Enough resemblance was in 
the situation for a fanciful enthusiasm to lend en- 
chantment to the name of Arden (p. 73), and recall 
scenes of shepherd-life with Celia, the songs that 
echoed "Under the greenwood-tree;" without need- 
ing the additional spell of seeing " Ingenious Shake- 
speare " mentioned among " the Time-Poets " on the 
fifth page of Choyce Drollery. 

Not easily was the book obtained ; every copy at 
that time being hunted after, and destroyed when 
found, by ruthless minions of the Commonwealth. 
A Parliamentary injunction had been passed against 
it. Commands were given for it to be burnt by the 
hangman. Few copies escaped, when spies and in- 
formers were numerous, and fines were levied upon 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll. 

those who had secreted it. Greedy eyes, active fin- 
gers, were after the Choyce Drollery. Any fortunate 
possessor, even in those early days, knew well that he 
grasped a treasure which few persons save himself 
could boast. Therefore it is not strange, two hundred 
and twenty years having rolled away since then, that 
the book has grown to be among the rarest of the 
Drolleries. Probably not six perfect copies remain in 
the world. The British Museum holds not one. We 
congratulate ourselves on restoring it now to students, 
for many parts of it possess historical value, besides 
poetic grace \ and the whole work forms an interesting 
relic of those troubled times. 

Unlike our other Drolleries, reproduced verbatim et 
literatim in this series, we here find little describing 
the last days of Cromwell and the Commonwealth; 
except one graphic picture of a despoiled West- 
Countryman (p. 57), complaining against both 
Roundheads and " Cabbaleroes." The poems were 
not only composed before hopes revived of speedy 
Restoration for the fugitive from Worcester-fight and 
Boscobel ; they were, in great part, written before the 
Civil Wars began. Few of them, perhaps, were pre- 
viously in print (the title-page asserts that none had 
been so, but we know this to be false). Publishers 
made such statements audaciously, then as now, and 
forced truth to limp behind them without chance of 



XIV. INTRODUCTION. 

overtaking. By far the greater number belonged to 
an early date in the reign of the murdered King, 
chiefly about the year 1637; two, at the least, were 
written in the time of James I. (viz., p. 40, a con 
temporary poem on the Gunpowder Plot of 1605; 
and, p. 10, the Ballad on King James I.), if not 
also the still earlier one, on the Defeat of the Scots at 
Muscleborough Field; which is probably corrupted 
from an original so remote as the reign of Edward VI. 
" Dowsabell " was certainly among the Pastorals of 
1593, and "Down lay the Shepherd's swain" (p. 65) 
bears token of belonging to an age when the Virgin 
Queen held sway. These facts guide to an under- 
standing of the charm held by Choyce Drollery for 
adherents of the Monarchy ; and of its obnoxiousness 
in the sight of the Parliament that had slain their 
King. It was not because of any exceptional im- 
morality in this Choyce Drollery that it became de- 
nounced ; although such might be declared in pro- 
clamations. Other books of the same year offended 
worse against morals : for example, the earliest 
edition known to us of Wit and Drollery, with the 
extremely " free " facetted of Sportive Wit, or Lusty 
Drollery (both works issued in 1656), held infinitely 
more to shock proprieties and call for repression. 
The Musarum Delicice of Sir J[ohn] M[ennis] and 
Dr. J[ames S[mithj, in the same year, 1656, cannot 



INTRODUCTION. XV. 

be held blameless. Yet the hatred shewn towards 
Choyce Drollery far exceeded all the rancour against 
these bolder sinners, or the previous year's delightful 
miscellany of merriment and true poetry, the Wifs 
Interpreter of industrious J[ohn] C[otgrave]; to 
whom, despite multitudinous typographical errors, we 
owe thanks, both for Wifs Interpreter and for the 
wilderness of dramatic beauties, his Wifs Treasury: 
bearing the same date of 1655. 

It was not because of sins against taste and public 
or private morals, (although, we admit, it has some few 
of these, sufficient to afford a pretext for persecutors, 
who would have been equally bitter had it possessed 
virginal purity :) but in consequence of other and more 
dangerous ingredients, that Choyce Drollery aroused 
such a storm. Not disgust, but fear of its influence 
in reviving loyalty, prompted the order of its extermi- 
nation. Readers at this later day, might easily fail to 
notice all that stirred the loyal sentiments of chivalric 
devotion, and consequently made the fierce Fifth- 
Monarchy men hate the small volume worse than the 
Apocrypha or Ikon Basilike. Herein was to be found the 
clever "Jack of Lent's" account of loyal preparations 
made in London to receive the newly-wedded Queen, 
Henrietta Maria, when she came from France, in 
1625, escorted by the Duke of Buckingham, who 
compromised her sister by his rash attentions : Buck- 






XVI. INTRODUCTION. 

ingham, whom King Charles loved so well that the 
favouritism shook his throne, even after Felton's 
dagger in 1628 had rid the land of the despotic cour- 
tier. Here, also, a more grievous offence to the 
Regicides, was still recorded in austere grandeur of 
verse, from no common hireling pen, but of some 
scholar like unto Henry King, of Chichester, the loyal 
" New- Year's Wish" (p. 48) presented to King 
Charles at the beginning of 1638, when the North 
was already in rebellion : wherein men read, what at 
that time had not been deemed profanity or blas- 
phemy, the praise and faithful service of some hearts 
who held their monarch only second to their Saviour. 
Referring to their hope that the personal approach of 
the King might cure the evils of the disturbed realm, 
it is written : — 

" You, like our sacred and indulgent Lord, 
When the too-stout Apostle drew his sword, 
When he mistooke some secrets of the cause, 
And in his furious zeale disdained the Lawes, 
Forgetting true Religion doth lye 
On prayers, not swords against authority : 
You, like our substitute of horrid fate, 
That are next Him we most should imitate, 
Shall like to Him rebuke with wiser breath, 
Such furious zeale, but not reveng'd with death. , 
Like him, the wound that's giv'n you strait shall heal 
Then calm by precept such mistaking zeal." 



INTRODUCTION. XV11. 

Here was a sincere, unflinching recognition of Divine 
Right, such as the faction in power could not possibly 
abide. Even the culpable weakness and ingratitude 
of Charles, in abandoning Strafford, Laud, and other 
champions to their unscrupulous destroyers, had not 
made true-hearted Cavaliers falter in their faith to 
him. As the best of moralists declares : — 

" Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove." 

These loyal sentiments being embodied in print 
within our Choyce Drollery, suitable to sustain the 
fealty of the defeated Cavaliers to the successor of the 
" Royal Martyr," it was evident that the Restoration 
must be merely a question of time. "If it be now, 
'tis not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; 
if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all 7" 

To more than one of those who had sat in the ill- 
constituted and miscalled High Court of Justice, 
during the closing days of 1648-9, there must have 
been, ever and anon, as the years rolled by, a shud- 
dering recollection of the words written anew upon 
the wall in characters of living fire. They had shown 
themselves familiar, in one sense much too familiar, 
with the phraseology but not the teaching of Scripture. 
To them the Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin needed no 

b 



XV111. INTRODUCTION. 

Daniel come to judgment for interpretation. The 
Banquet was not yet over; the subjugated people, whom 
they had seduced from their allegiance by a dream of 
winning freedom from exactions, were still sullenly 
submissive ; the desecrated cups and challices of the 
Church they had despoiled, believing it overthrown 
for ever, had been, in many cases, melted down for 
plunder, — in others, sold as common merchandize : 
and yet no thunder heard. But, however defiantly 
they might bear themselves, however resolute to crush 
down every attempt at revolt against their own au- 
thority, the men in power could not disguise from 
one another that there were heavings of the earth on 
which they trod, coming from no reverberations of 
their footsteps, but telling of hollowness and insecurity 
below. They were already suspicious among them- 
selves, no longer hiding personal spites and jealousies, 
the separate ambition of uncongenial factions, which 
had only united for a season against the monarchy 
and hierarchy, but now began to fall asunder, mutually 
envenomed and intolerant. Presbyterian, Indepen- 
dent, and Nondescript-Enthusiast, while combined 
together of late, had been acknowledged as a power 
invincible, a Three-fold Cord that bound the helpless 
Victim to an already bloody altar. The strands of it 
were now unwinding, and there scarcely needed much 
prophetic wisdom to discern that one by one they 
could soon be broken. 



INTRODUCTION. XIX. 

To us, from these considerations, there is intense 
attraction in the Choyce Drollery, since it so narrowly 
escaped from flames to which it had been judicially 
condemned. 

§ 2. — The Two Courts, in 1656. 

At this date many a banished or self-exiled Royalist, 
dwelling in the Low Countries, but whose heart re- 
mained in England, drew a melancholy contrast be- 
tween the remembered past of Whitehall and the 
gloomy present. With honest Touchstone, he could 
say, " Now am I in Arden ! the more fool I. When I 
was at home I was in a better place ; but travellers 
must be content." 

Meanwhile, in the beloved Warwickshire glades, 
herds of swine were routing noisily for acorns, dropped 
amid withered leaves under branches of the Royal 
Oaks. They were watched by boys, whose chins 
would not be past the first callow down of promissory 
beards when Restoration-day should come with shouts 
of welcome throughout the land. 

In 1656 our Charles Stuart was at Bruges, now 
and then making a visit to Cologne, often getting into 
difficulties through the misconduct of his unruly fol- 
lowers, and already quite enslaved by Dalilahs, syrens 
against whom his own shrewd sense was powerless to 
defend him. For amusement he read his favourite 



XX. INTRODUCTION. 

French or Italian authors, not seldom took long walks, 
and indulged himself in field sports : 

"A merry monarch, scandalous and poor " 

For he was only scantily supplied with money, which 
chiefly came from France, but if he had possessed the 
purse of Fortunatus it could barely have sufficed to 
meet demands from those who lived upon him. A 
year before, the Lady Byron had been spoken of as 
being his seventeenth Mistress abroad, and there was 
no deficiency of candidates for any vacant place within 
his heart. Sooth to say, the place was never vacant, 
for it yielded at all times unlimited accommodation 
to every beauty. Music and dances absorbed much 
of his attention. So long as the faces around him 
showed signs of happiness, he did not seriously afflict 
himself because he was in exile, and a little out at 
elbows. 

Such was the "Banished Duke" in his Belgian 
Court; poor substitute for the Forest of Ardennes, 
not far distant. By all accounts, he felt " the penalty 
of Adam, the season's difference," and in no way 
relished the discomfort. He did not smile and say, 

" This is no flattery : these are counsellors 
That feelingly persuade me what I am." 

For, in truth, he much preferred avoiding such coun- 



INTRODUCTION. XXI. 

sel, and relished flattery too well to part with it on 
cheap terms. He never considered the "rural life 
more sweet than that of painted pomp/' and, if all 
tales of Cromwell's machinations be held true, Charles 
by no means found the home of exile "more free 
from peril than the envious court." On the other 
hand, his own proclamation, dated 3rd May, 1654, 
offering an annuity of five hundred pounds, a 
Colonelcy and Knighthood, to any person who should 
destroy the Usurper ("a certain mechanic fellow, by 
name Oliver Cromwell !"), took from him all moral 
right of complaint against reprisals : unless, as we 
half-believe, this proclamation were one of the many 
forgeries. As to any sweetness in "the uses of 
Adversity," Charles might have pleaded, with a laugh, 
that he had known sufficient of them already to be 
cloyed with it. 

The men around him were of similar opinion. A 
few, indeed, like Cowley and Crashaw, were loyal 
hearts, whose devotion was best shown in times of 
difficulty. Not many proved of such sound metal, 
but there lived some " faithful found among the faith- 
less"; and 

" He that can endure 
To follow with allegiance a fallen lord, 
Does conquer him that did his master conquer, 
And earns a place in the story." 



XX11. INTRODUCTION. 

The Ladies of the party scarcely cared for anything 
beyond self-adornment, rivalry, languid day-dreams of 
future greatness, and the encouragement of gallantry. 
There was not one among them who for a moment 
can bear comparison with the Protector's daughter, 
Elizabeth Claypole — perhaps the loveliest female 
character of all recorded in those years. Everything 
concerning her speaks in praise. She was the good 
angel of the house. Her father loved her, with some- 
thing approaching reverence, and feared to forfeit 
her conscientious approval more than the support of 
his companions in arms. In worship she shrank from 
the profane familiarity of the Sectaries, and devotedly 
held by the Church of England. She is recorded 
to have always used her powerful influence in behalf 
of the defeated Cavaliers, to obtain mercy and for- 
bearance. Her name was whispered, with blessing 
implored upon it, in the prayers of many whom she 
alone had saved from death.* No personal ambition, 
no foolish pride and ostentation marked her short 
career. The searching glare of Court publicity could 
betray no flaw in her conduct or disposition ; for the 

* Elizabeth Cromwell. — A contemporary writes, " How 
many of the Royalist prisoners got she not freed ? How many 
did she not save from death whom the Laws had condemned ? 
How many persecuted Christians hath she not snatched out of the 
hands of the tormentors ; quite contrary unto that [daughter of] 
Herodias who could do anything with her [step] father? She 



INTRODUCTION. XX111. 

heart was sound within, her religion was devoid of all 
hypocrisy. Her Christian purity was too clearly stain- 
less for detraction to dare raise one murmur. She is 
said to have warmly pleaded in behalf of Doctor 
Hewit, who died upon the scaffold with his Royalist 
companion, Sir Harry Slingsby, the 8th of June, 1658 
(although she rejoiced in the defeat of their plot, as- 
her extant letter proves). Cromwell resisted her 
solicitations, urged to obduracy by his more ruthless 
Ironsides, who called for terror to be stricken into 
the minds of all reactionists by wholesale slaughter of 
conspirators. Soon after this she faded. It was 
currently reported and believed that on her death-bed, 
amid the agonies and fever-fits, she bemoaned the 
blood that had been shed, and spoke reproaches to 

imployed her Prayers even with Tears to spare such men whose 
ill fortune had designed them to suffer," &c. (S. Carrington's 
History of the Life and Death of His most Serene Highness 
OLIVER, Late Lord Protector. 1659. p. 264.) 

Elizabeth Cromwell, here contrasted with Salome, more re- 
sembled the Celia of As you Like It, in that she, through prizing 
truth and justice, showed loving care of those whom her father 
treated as enemies. 

By the way, our initial-letter W. on opening page it (repre- 
senting Salome receiving from the ATreKOvXanop, sent by Herod, 
the head of S. John the Baptist) — is copied from the Address to 
the Reader prefixed to Part II. of Merry Drollery, 1661. Fide 
postea, p. 232. 

Our initial letters in M.D., C, pp. 3, 5, are in fac simile of the 
original. 



XXIV. INTRODUCTION. 

the father whom she loved, so that his conscience 
smote him, and the remembrance stayed with him for 
ever.* She was only twenty-nine when at Hampton 
Court she died, on the 6th of August, 1658. Less 
than a month afterwards stout Oliver's heart broke. 
Something had gone from him, which no amount of 
power and authority could counter-balance. He was 
not a man to breathe his deeper sorrows into the ear 
of those political adventurers or sanctified enthusiasts 
whose glib tongues could rattle off the words of con- 

* Cromwell " seemed much afflicted at the death of his Friend 
the Earl of Warwick; with whom he had a fast friendship, though 
neither their humours, nor their natures, were like. And the Heir 
of that House, who had married his youngest Daughter [Frances] , 
died about the same time [or, rather, two months earlier] ; so 
that all his relation to, or confidence in that Family was at an end; 
the other branches of it abhorring his Alliance. His domestick 
delights were lessened every day ; he plainly discovered that his 
son [in-law, who had married Mary Cromwell,] Falconbridge's 
heart was set upon an Interest destructive to his, and grew to hate 
him perfectly. But that which chiefly broke his Peace was the death 
of his daughter \_Elizaheth~\ C I ay pole ; who had been always his 
greatest joy, and who, in her sickness, which was of a nature the 
Physicians knew not how to deal with, had several Conferences 
with him, which exceedingly perplexed him. Though no body 
was near enough to hear the particulars, yet her often mentioning, 
in the pains she endured, the blood her Father had spilt, made 
people conclude, that she had presented his worst Actions to his 
consideration. And though he never made the least show of 
remorse for any of those Actions, it is very certain, that either what 
she said, or her death, affected him wonderfully." (Clarendon's 
Hist, of the Rebellion. Book xv., p. 647, edit. 1720.) 



INTRODUCTION. XXV. 

solation. While she was slowly dying he had still 
tried to grapple with his serious duties, as though 
undisturbed. Her prayers and her remonstrances had 
been powerless of late to make him swerve. But 
now, when she was gone, the hollow mockery of what 
power remained stood revealed to him plainly ; and 
the Rest that was so near is not unlikely to have been 
the boon he most desired. It came to him upon his 
fatal day, his anniversary of still recurring success and 
happy fortune ; came, as is well known, on September 
3rd, 1658. The Destinies had nothing better left to 
give him, so they brought him death. What could be 
more welcome? Very few of these who reach the 
summit of ambition, as of those other who most 
lamentably failed, and became bankrupt of every 
hope, can feel much sadness when the messenger is 
seen who comes to lead them hence, — from a world 
wherein the jugglers' tricks have all grown wearisome, 
and where the tawdry pomp or glare cannot disguise 
the sadness of Life's masquerade. 

" Naught's had — all's spent, 
When our desire is got without content : 
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy, 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy." 



xxvi. introduction. 

§ 3. — Songs of Love and War. 

It was still 1656, of which we write (the year of 
Choyce Drollery and Parnassus Biceps, of Wit and 
Drollery and of Sportive Wit); not 1658: but 
shadows of the coming end were to be seen. Already 
it was evident that Cromwell sate not firmly on the 
throne, uncrowned, indeed, but holding power of 
sovereignty. His health was no longer what it had 
been of old. The iron constitution was breaking up. 
Yet was he only nine months older than the century. 
In September his new Parliament met ; if it can be 
called a Parliament in any sense, restricted and co- 
erced alike from a free choice and from free speech, 
pledged beforehand to be servile to him, and holding 
a brief tenure of mock authority under his favour. 
They might declare his person sacred, and prohibit 
mention of Charles Stuart, whose regal title they 
denounced. But few cared what was said or done by 
such a knot of praters. More important was the 
renewed quarrel with Spain \ and all parties rejoiced 
when gallant Blake and Montague fell in with eight 
Spanish ships off Cadiz, captured two of them and 
stranded others. There had been no love for that 
rival fleet since the Invincible Armada made its boast 
in 1588 ; but what had happened in " Bloody Mary's" 
reign, after her union with Philip, and the later cruel- 
ties wrought under Alva against the patriots of the 



INTRODUCTION. XXV11. 

Netherlands, increased the national hatred. We see 
one trace of this renewed desire for naval warfare in 
the appearance of the Armada Ballad, " In eighty- 
eight ere I was born," on page 38 of our Choyce 
Drollery : the earliest copy of it we have met in print. 
Some supposed connection of Spanish priestcraft 
with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (Guido Faux and 
several of the Jesuits being so accredited from the 
Low Country wars), may have caused the early poem 
on this subject to be placed immediately following. 

But the chief interest of the book, for its admirers, 
lay not in temporary allusions to the current politics 
and gossip. Furnishing these were numerous pam- 
phlets, more or less venomous, circulating stealthily, 
despite all watchfulness and penalties. Next year, 
1657, "Killing no Murder" would come down, as if 
showered from the skies ; but although hundreds 
wished that somebody else might act on the sug- 
gestions, already urged before this seditious tract 
appeared, not one volunteer felt called upon to im- 
molate himself to certain death on the instant by 
standing forward as the required assassin. Cautious 
thinkers held it better to bide their time, and await 
the natural progress of events, allowing all the enemies 
of Charles and Monarchy to quarrel and consume 
each other. Probably the bulk of country farmers 
and their labourers cared not one jot how things fell 



XXV111. INTRODUCTION. 

out, so long as they were left without exorbitant 
oppression ; always excepting those who dwelt where 
recently the hoof of war-horse trod, and whose fields 
and villages bore still the trace of havoc. Otherwise, 
the interference with the Maypole dance, and such 
innocent rural sports, by the grim enemies to social 
revelry, was felt to be a heavier sorrow than the 
slaughter of their King.* So long as wares were sold, 
and profits gained, Town-traders held few sentiments 
of favour towards either camp. It was (owing to the 
parsimony of Parliament, and his continual need of 
supplies to be obtained without their sanction,) the 
frequency of his exactions, the ship-money, the forced 
loans, and the uncertainty of ever gaining a repay- 
ment, which had turned many hearts against King 
Charles I., in his long years of difficulty, before 
shouts arose of "Privilege." But for the cost of 
wasteful revels at Court, with gifts to favourites, the 
expense of foreign or domestic wars, there would 
have been no popular complaint against tyranny. 
Citizens care little about questions of Divine Right 
and Supremacy, pro or con, so long as they are left 

* John Cleveland wrote a satirical address to Mr. Hammond, 
the Puritan preacher of Beudley, who had exerted himself " for the 
Pulling down of the Maypole." It begins, in mock praise, "The 
mighty zeal which thou hast put on," &c. ; and is printed in 
Parnassus Biceps, 1656, p. 18 ; and among "J. Cleveland Revived; 
Poems," 1662, p. 96. 



INTRODUCTION. XXIX. 

unfettered from growing rich, and are not called on 
to disgorge the wealth they swallowed ravenously, 
perhaps also dishonestly. Some remembrance of this 
fact possessed the Cavaliers, even before George 
Monk came to burst the city gates and chains. The 
Restoration confirmed the same opinion, and the 
later comedies spoke manifold contempt against time- 
serving traders ; who cheated gallant men of money 
and land, but in requital were treated like Acteon. 

Although, in 1656, disquiet was general, amid 
contemporary records we may seek far before we 
meet a franker and more manly statement of the 
honest Englishman's opinion, despising every phase 
of trickery in word, deed, or visage, than the poem 
found in Choyce Drollery, p. 85, — " The Doctor's 
Touchstone." There were, doubtless, many whose 
creed it stated rightly. A nation that could feel thus, 
would not long delay to pluck the mask from sancti- 
monious hypocrites, and drag " The Gang " from out 
their saddle. 

Here, too, are the love-songs of a race of Poets 
who had known the glories of Whitehall before its 
desecration. Here are the courtly praises of such 
beauties as the Lady Elizabeth Dormer, 1st Countess 
of Carnarvon, who, while she held her infant in her 
arms, in 1642, was no less fascinating than she had 
been in her virgin bloom. The airy trifling, dallying 



XXX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



with conceits in verse, that spoke of a refinement and 
graceful idlesse more than passionate warmth, gave us 
these relics of such men as Thomas Carew, who died 
in 1638, before the Court dissolved into a Camp. 
Some of them recal the strains of dramatists, whose 
only actresses had been Ladies of high birth, con- 
descending to adorn the Masques in palaces, winning 
applause from royal hands and voices. These, more- 
over, were " Songs and Sonnets " which the best mu- 
sicians had laboured skilfully to clothe anew with 
melody : Poems already breathing their own music, 
as they do still, when lutes and virginals are broken, 
and the composer's score has long been turned into 
gun-wadding. 

What sweetness and true pathos are found among 
them, readers can study once more. The opening 
poem, by Davenant, is especially beautiful, where a 
Lover comforts himself with a thought of dying in 
his Lady's presence, and being mourned thereafter by 
her, so that she shall deck his grave with tears, and, 
loving it, must come and join him there : — 



" Yet we hereafter shall be found 
By Destiny's right placing, 
Making, like Flowers, Love under ground, 
Whose roots are still embracing."* 

* Here the thought is enveloped amid tender fancies. Compare 
the more passionate and solemn earnestness of the loyal church- 



INTRODUCTION. XXXI. 

Seeing, alongside of these tender pleadings from the 
worshipper of Beauty, some few pieces where the 
taint of foulness now awakens our disgust, we might 
feel wonder at the contrast in the same volume, and 
the taste of the original collector, were not such feel- 
ing of wonder long ago exhausted. Queen Elizabeth 
sate out the performance of Lovers Labour's Lost 
(if tradition is to be believed), and was not shocked 
at some free expressions in that otherwise delightful 
play ; — words and inuendoes, let us own, which were 
a little unsuited to a Virgin Queen. Again, if another 
tradition be trustworthy, she herself commissioned the 
comedy of Merry Wives of Windsor to be written 
and acted, in order that she might see Falstaffe in 

man, Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, in his poem of The 
Exequy, addressed " To his never-to-be-forgotten Friend," wherein 
he says : — 

" Sleep on, my Love, in thy cold bed, 

Never to be disquieted ! 

My last good-night ! Thou wilt not wake, 

Till I thy fate shall overtake ; 

Till age, or grief, or sickness, must 

Marry my body to that dust 

It so much loves ; and fill the room 

My heart keeps empty in thy Tomb. 

Stay for me there ; I will notfaile 

To meet thee in that hollow Vale. 

And think not much of my delay ; 

I am already on the way, 

And follow thee with all the speed 

Desire can make, or sorrows breed," &c. 



XXX11. INTRODUCTION. 

love: but after that Eastcheap Boar's-Head Tavern 
scene, with rollicking Doll Tear-sheet, in the Second 
Part of Henry IV., surely her sedate Majesty might 
have been prepared to look for something very dif- 
ferent from the proprieties of " Religious Courtship " 
or the refinements of Platonic affection in the Knight, 
who, having " more flesh than other men," pleads this 
as an excuse for his also having more frailty. 

Suppose we own at once, that there is a great deal 
of falsehood and mock-modesty in the talk which ever 
anon meets us, the Puritanical squeamishness of each 
extremely moral (undetected) Tartuffe, acting as 
Aristarchus ; who cannot, one might think, be quite 
ignorant of what is current in the newspaper-literature 
of our own time.* The fact is this, people now-a- 
days keep their dishes of spiced meat and their Bar- 
mecide show-fasts separate. They sip the limpid 
spring before company, and keep hidden behind a 

* For special reasons, the Editor felt it nearly impossible to 
avoid the omission of a few letters in one of the most objectionable 
of these pieces, the twelfth in order, of Choyce Drollery. He men- 
tions this at once, because he holds to his confirmed opinion 
that in Reprints of scarce and valuable historical memorials no 
tampering with the original is permissible. (But see Appendix, 
Part IV. and pp. 230, 288.) He incurs blame from judicious anti- 
quaries by even this small and acknowledged violation of exacti- 
tude. Probably, he might have given pleasure to the general 
public if he had omitted much more, not thirty letters only, but 
entire poems or songs ; as the books deserved in punishment. 



INTRODUCTION. XXX111. 

curtain the forbidden wine of Xeres, quietly iced, for 
private drinking. Our ancestors took a taste of both 
together, and without blushing. Their cup of nectar 
had some "allaying Tyber" to abate "the thirst com- 
plaint." They did not label their books " Moral and 
Theological, for the public Ken," or " Vice, sub rosa, 
for our locked-cabinet !" Parlons d'autres choses, 
Messieurs, s>il vous plait 



§ 4. — On the Pastorals. 

There were good reasons for Court and country 
being associated ideas, if only in contrast. Thus 
Touchstone states, when drolling with Colin, as to a 
Pastoral employment : — " Truly, shepherd in respect 
of itself it is a good life ; but in respect it is not in the 
Court, it is tedious." The large proportion of pas- 
toral songs and poems in Choyce Drollery is one other 
noticeable characteristic. Even as Utopian schemes, 
with dreams of an unrealized Republic where laws may 
be equally administered, and cultivation given to all 
highest arts or sciences, are found to be most popular 
in times of discontent and tyranny, when no en- 

But he leaves others to produce expurgated editions, suitable for 
unlearned triflers. Any reader can here erase from the Reprint 
what offends his individual taste (as we know that Ann, Countess 
of Strafford, cut out the poem of "Woman" from our copy of 
Dryden's Miscellany Poems, Pt. 6, 1709). No Editor has any 
business to thus mutilate every printed copy. 






XXXIV. INTRODUCTION. 

couragement for hope appears in what the acting 
government is doing ; even so, amid luxurious times, 
with artificial tastes predominant, there is always a 
tendency to dream of pastoral simplicity, and to sing 
or paint the joys of rural life* In the voluptuous 
languor of Miladi's own boudoir, amid scented fumes 
of pastiles and flowers, hung round with curtains 
brought from Eastern palaces, Watteau, Greuze, 
Boucher, and Bachelier were employed to paint 
delicious panels of bare-feeted shepherdesses, herding 
their flocks with ribbon-knotted crooks and bursting 
bodices ; while goatherd-swains, in satin breeches and 
rosetted pumps, languish at their side, and tell of 
tender passion through a rustic pipe. The contrast 
of a wimpling brook, birds twittering on the spray, 
and daintiest hint of hay-forks or of reaping-hooks, 
enhanced with piquancy, no doubt, the every-day 
delights of fashionable wantonness. And as it was 
in such later times with courtiers of La belle France 
surrounding Louis XV., so in the reign of either 
Charles of England — the Revolution Furies crept 
nearer unperceived. 

Recurrence to Pastorals in Choyce Drollery is simply 
in accordance with a natural tendency of baffled Cava- 
liers, to look back again to all that had distinguished 
the earlier days of their dead monarch, before Puri- 
tanism had become rampant. Even Milton, in his 



INTRODUCTION. XXXV. 

youthful "Lycidas," 1637, showed love for such 
Idyllic transformation of actual life into a Pastoral 
Eclogue. (A bitter spring of hatred against the 
Church was even then allowed to pollute the clear 
rill of Helicon : in him thereafter that Marah never 
turned to sweetness.) Some of these Pastorals re- 
main undiscovered elsewhere. But there can be no 
mistaking the impression left upon them by the 
opening years of the seventeenth, if not more truly 
the close of the sixteenth, century. Dull, plodding 
critics have sneered at Pastorals, and wielded their 
sledge-hammers against the Dresden-china Shepherd- 
esses, as though they struck down Dagon from his 
pedestal. What then ? Are we forbidden to enjoy, 
because their taste is not consulted ? 

" Fools from their folly 'tis hopeless to stay ! 
Mules will be mules, by the law of their mulishness ; 
Then be advised, and leave fools to their foolishness, 

What from an ass can be got but a bray ?" 

Always will there be some smiling virtuosi, here or 
elsewhere, who can prize the unreal toys, and thank 
us for retrieving from dusty oblivion a few more of 
these early Pastorals. When too discordantly the 
factions jar around us, and denounce every one of 
moderate opinions or quiet habits, because he is un- 
willing to become enslaved as a partisan, and fight 
under the banner that he deems disgraced by false- 



XXXVI. INTRODUCTION. 

hood and intolerance, despite its ostentatious blazon 
of "Liberation" or "Equality," it is not easy, even 
for such as " the melancholy Cowley," to escape into 
his solitude without a slanderous mockery from those 
who hunger for division of the spoil. Recluse phi- 
losophers of science or of literature, men like Sir 
Thomas Browne, pursue their labour unremittingly, 
and keep apart from politics ; but even for this ab- 
stinence harsh measure is dealt to them by contem- 
poraries and posterity whom they labour to enrich. 
It is well, no doubt, that we should be convinced 
as to which side the truth is on, and fight for that 
unto the death. Woe to the recreant who shrinks 
from hazarding everything in life, and life itself, de- 
fending what he holds to be the Right. Yet there 
are times when, as in 1656, the fight has gone against 
our cause, and no further gain seems promised by 
waging single-handedly a warfare against the tri- 
umphant multitude. Patience, my child, and wait 
the inevitable turn of the already quivering balance ! 
— such is Wisdom's counsel. Butler knew the truth 
of Cavalier loyalty :— 

" For though out-numbered, overthrown, 
And by the fate of war run down, 
Their Duty never was defeated, 
Nor from their oaths and faith retreated : 
For Loyalty is still the same 
Whether it lose or win the game ; 



INTRODUCTION. XXXV11. 

True as the dial to the sun, 
Although it be not shone upon." 

Some partizans may find a paltry pleasure in dealing 
stealthy stabs, or buffoons' sarcasms, against the foes 
they could not fairly conquer. Some hold a silent 
dignified reserve, and give no sign of what they hope 
or fear. But for another, and large class, there will 
be solace in the dreams of earlier days, such as the 
Poets loved to sing about a Golden Pastoral Age. 
Those who best learnt to tell its beauty were men 
unto whom Fortune seldom offered gifts, as though it 
were she envied them for having better treasure in 
their birthright of imagination. The dull, harsh, and 
uncongenial time intensified their visions: even as 
Hogarth's " Distressed Poet " — amid the squalour of 
his garret, with his gentle uncomplaining wife dunned 
for a milk-score — revels in description of Potosi's 
mines, and, while he writes in poverty, can feign him- 
self possessor of uncounted riches. Such power of 
self-forgetfulness was grasped by the "Time-Poets," 
of whom our little book keeps memorable record. 

So be it, Cavaliers of 1656. Though Oliver's 
troopers and a hated Parliament are still in the 
ascendant, let your thoughts find repose awhile, your 
hopes regain bright colouring, remembering the 
plaints of one despairing shepherd, from whom his 
Chloris fled ; or of that other, " sober and demure," 



XXXV111. INTRODUCTION. 

whose mistress had herself to blame, through freedoms 
being borne too far. We, also, love to seek a refuge 
from the exorbitant demands of myriad-handed in- 
terference with Church and State ; so we come back 
to you, as you sit awhile in peace under the aged 
trees, remote from revellers and spies, " Farre in the 
Forest of Arden " — O take us thither ! — reading of 
happy lovers in the pages of Choyce Drollery. Since 
their latest words are of our favourite Fletcher, let our 
invocation also be from him, in his own melodious 
verse : — 

" How sweet these solitary places are ! how wantonly 
The wind blows through the leaves, and courts and 

plays with 'em ! 
Will you sit down, and sleep ? The heat invites you. 
Hark, how yon purling stream dances and murmurs ; 
The birds sing softly too. Pray take your rest, Sir." 



J. W. E. 

September 2nd, 1875. 



Choyce Drollery 

Songs & Sonnets. 






Choyce 

DROLLERY 

SONGS & SONNETS. 

BEING 

A Collection of divers excel- 
lent pieces of Poetry, 

OF 

Severall eminent Authors. 

Never before printed. 






LONDON, 

Printed by J. G. for Robert Pollard, at the 
Ben. yohnsoris head behind the Ex- 
change, and John Sweeting, at the 
Angel in Popes-Head Alley. 
1656. 





To the READER. 

Courteous Reader, 

Hy grateful reception 
of our first Collection 
hath induced us to a 
second essay of the same nature; 
which, as we are confident, it is 
not inferioure to the former in 
worth, so we assure our selves, 
upon thy already experimented 
Candor, that it shall at least e- 
quall it in its fortunate accepta- 
tion. We serve up these Deli- 
a 2 cates 



[To the Reader : 1656.] 

cates by frugall Messes, as ai- 
ming at thy Satisfaction, not 
Saciety. But our designe being 
more upon thy judgement, than 
patience, more to delight thee, 
than to detain thee in theportall 
of a tedious, and seldome-read 
Epistle ; we draw this displea- 
sing Curtain, that intercepts thy 
(by this time) gravid, and al- 
most teeming fancy, and sub- 
scribe, 

R.P. 




Choice 

DROLLERY: 

SONGS 

AND 

Sonnets. 



The broken Heart. 
i. 

DEare Love let me this evening dye, 
Oh smile not to prevent it, 
But use this opportunity, 
Or we shall both repent it : 
Frown quickly then, and break my heart, 
That so my way of dying 
May, though my life were full of smart, 
Be worth the worlds envying. 

b Some 



Choice Drollery, 

2 

Some striving knowledge to refine, 
Consume themselves with thinking, 
And some who friendship seale in wine 
Are kindly kill'd with drinking : 
And some are rackt on th' Indian coast, 
Thither by gain invited, 
Some are in smoke ofbattailes lost, 
Whom Drummes not Lutes delighted. 

3- 

Alas how poorely these depart, 
Their graves still unattended, 
Who dies not of a broken heart, 
Is not in death commended. 
His memory is ever sweet, 
All praise and pity moving, 
Who kindly at his Mistresse feet 
Doth dye with over-loving. 

4- 
And now thou frown'st, and now I dye, 
My corps by Lovers follow'd, 
Which streight shall by dead lovers lye, 
For that ground's onely hollow'd : [hallowM] 
If Priest take't ill I have a grave, 
My death not well approving, 
The Poets my estate shall have 
To teach them th' art of loving. 

And 



Songs and Sonnets. 3 

5- 
And now let Lovers ring their bells, 
For thy poore youth departed ; 
Which every Lover els excels, 
That is not broken hearted. 
My grave with flowers let virgins strow, 
For if thy teares fall neare them, 
They'l so excell in scent and shew, 
Thy selfe wilt shortly weare them. 

6. 

Such Flowers how much will Flora prise, 

That's on a Lover growing, 

And watred with his Mistris eyes, 

With pity overflowing ? 

A grave so deckt, well, though thou art [? will] 

Yet fearfull to come nigh me, 

Provoke thee straight to break thy heart, 

And lie down boldly by me. 

7- 
Then every where shall all bells ring, 
Whilst all to blackness e turning, 
All torches burn, and all quires sing, 
As Nature's self were mourning. 
Yet we hereafter shall be found 
By Destiny's right placing, 
Making like Flowers, Love under ground, 
Whose Roots are still embracing. 

b 2 Of 






Choice Drollery \ 

V W W W W V W W V W W V w W w w © w w w w 

Of a Woman that died for love of a Man. 

NOr Love nor Fate dare I accuse, 
Because my Love did me refuse : 
But oh ! mine own unworthinesse, 
That durst presume so mickle blisse ; 
Too mickle 'twere for me to love 
A thing so like the God above, 
An Angels face, a Saint-like voice, 
Were too divine for humane choyce. 

Oh had I wisely given my heart, 
For to have lov'd him, but in part, 
Save onely to have lov'd his face 
For any one peculiar grace, 
A foot, or leg, or lip, or eye, 
I might have liv'd, where now I dye. 
But I that striv'd all these to chuse, 
Am now condemned all to lose. 

You rurall Gods that guard the plains, 

And chast'neth unjust disdains ; 

Oh do not censure him him for this, 

It was my error, and not his. 

This onely boon of thee I crave, 

To fix these lines upon my grave, 

With Icarus I soare[d] too high, 

For which (alas) I fall and dye. 

On 



Songs and Sonnets. 




On the 

TIME-POETS. 

ONe night the great Apollo pleas'd with Ben, 
Made the odde number of the Muses ten ; 
The fluent Fletcher, Beaumont rich in sense, 
In Complement and Courtships quintessence ; 
Ingenious Shakespeare, Massinger that knowes 
The strength of Plot to write in verse and prose : 
Whose easie Pegassus will amble ore 
Some threescore miles of Fancy in an houre ; 
Cloud-grapling Chapman, whose Aerial minde 
Soares at Philosophy, and strikes it blinde ; 
Danboitrn \Dabourn\ I had forgot, and let it be, 
He dy'd Amphibion by the Ministry ; 
Silvester, Bartas, whose translatique part 
Twinn'd, or was elder to our Laureat : 
Divine composing Quarles, whose lines aspire 
The April of all Poesy in May, [Tho. May.] 

Who 

B3 



Choice Drollery, 



Who makes our English speak Pharsalia; 

Sands metamorphos'd so into another [Sandys] 

We know not Sands and Ovid from each other ; 

He that so well on Scotus play'd the Man, 

The famous Diggs, or Leonard Claudian; 

The pithy Daniel, whose salt lines afford 

A weighty sentence in each little word ; 

Heroick Draiton, Withers, smart in Rime, 

The very Poet-Beadles of the Time : 

Panns pastoral Brown, whose infant Muse did squeak 

At eighteen yeares, better than others speak : 

Shirley the morning-child, the Muses bred, 

And sent him born with bayes upon his head : 

Deep in a dump John Ford alone was got 

With folded armes and melancholly hat ; 

The squibbing Middleton, and Haywood sage, 

Th' Apologetick Atlas of the Stage ; 

Well of the Golden age he could intreat, 

But little of the Mettal he could get ; 

Three-score sweet Babes he fashion'd from the lump, 

For he was Christ'ned in Parnassus pump j 

The Muses Gossip to Aurora's bed, 

And ever since that time his face was red. 

Thus through the horrour of infernall deeps, 

With equal pace each of them softly creeps, 

And being dark they had A lectors torch, [Alectd's] 

And that made Churchyard follow from his Porch, 

Poor, ragged, torn, & tackt, alack, alack 

You'd think his clothes were pinn'd upon his back. 



Songs and Sonnets. 7 

The whole frame hung with pins, to mend which 

clothes, 
In mirth they sent him to old Father Prose j 
Of these sad Poets this way ran the stream, 
And Decker followed after in a dream ; 
Rounce, Robbie, Hobble, he that writ so high big [;] 
Basse for a Ballad, John Shank for a Jig : \Wm. Basse.] 
Sent by Ben Jonson, as some Authors say, 
Broom went before and kindly swept the way : 
Old Chaucer welcomes them unto the Green, 
And Spencer brings them to the fairy Queen ; 
The finger they present, and she in grace 
Transform'd it to a May-pole, 'bout which trace 
Her skipping servants, that do nightly sing, 
And dance about the same a Fayrie Ring. 



B4 The 



Choice Drollery, 



The Vow-breaker. 

WHen first the Magick of thine eye 
Usurpt upon my liberty, 
Triumphing in my hearts spoyle, thou 
Didst lock up thine in such a vow : 
When I prove false, may the bright day 
Be govern'd by the Moones pale ray, 
(As I too well remember) this 
Thou saidst, and seald'st it with a kisse. 

Oh heavens ! and could so soon that tye 

Relent in sad apostacy ? 

Could all thy Oaths and mortgag'd trust, 

Banish like Letters form'd in dust, [? vanish] 

Which the next wind scatters ? take heed, 

Take heed Revolter ; know this deed 

Hath wrong'd the world, which will fare worse 

By thy example, than thy curse. 

Hide that false brow in mists ; thy shame 

Ne're see light more, but the dimme flame 

Of Funerall-lamps ; thus sit and moane, 

And learn to keep thy guilt at home \ 

Give it no vent, for if agen 

Thy love or vowes betray more men, 

At length I feare thy perjur'd breath 

Will blow out day, and waken death. 

The 



Songs and Sonnets. 




The Sympathie. 

IF at this time I am derided, 
And you please to laugh at me, 
Know I am not unprovided 
Every way to answer thee, 
Love, or hate, what ere it be, 

Never Twinns so nearly met 
As thou and I in our affection, 

When thou weepst my eyes are wet, 
That thou lik'st is my election, 
I am in the same subjection. 

In one center we are both, 

Both our lives the same way tending, 

Do thou refuse, and I shall loath, 
As thy eyes, so mine are bending, 
Either storm or calm portending. 

I am carelesse if despised, 
For I can contemn again ; 

How can I be then surprised, 
Or with sorrow, or with pain, 
When I can both love & disdain ? 



The 



IO 



Choice Drollery, 




The Red Head and the White. 

i. 

COme my White head, let our Muses 
Vent no spleen against abuses, 
Nor scoffe at monstrous signes i' th' nose, 
Signes in the Teeth, or in the Toes, 
Nor what now delights us most, 
The sign of signes upon the post. 
For other matter we are sped, 
And our signe shall be i' th' head. 

2. [White Head's Answer.] 
Oh ! Will: Rufus, who would passe, 
Unlesse he were a captious Asse ; 
The Head of all the parts is best, 
And hath more senses then the rest. 
This subject then in our defence 
Will clear our Poem of non-sense. 

Besides, you know, what ere we read, 

We use to bring it to a head. 



Why 






Songs and Sonnets. 1 1 

Why there's no other part we can 
Stile Monarch o're this Isle of man : 
'Tis that that weareth Nature's crown, 
Tis this doth smile, 'tis this doth frown, 
O what a prize and triumph 'twere, 
To make this King our Subject here : 
Believ't, tis true what we have sed, 
In this we hit the naile o' th' head. 

2. [W. H.'s Answer.] 

Your nails upon my head Sir, Why ? 

How do you thus to villifie 

The King of Parts, 'mongst all the rest, 

Or if no king, methinks at least, 

To mine you should give no offence, 

That weares the badge of Innocence ; 

Those blowes would far more justly light 
On thy red scull, for mine is white. 

i. 

Come on yfaith, that was well sed, 

A pretty boy, hold up thy head, 

Or hang it down, and blush apace, 

And make it like mines native grace. 

There's ne're a Bung-hole in the town 

But in the working puts thine down, 
A byle that's drawing to a head 
Looks white like thine, but mine is red. 

Poore 



io [12] Choice Drollery, 

2. [W. H.'s Answer.] 

Poore foole, 'twas shame did first invent 
The colour of thy Ornament, 
And therefore thou art much too blame 
To boast of that which is thy shame ; 
The Roman Prince that Poppeys topt, 
Did shew such Red heads should be cropt : 
And still the Turks for poyson smite 
Such Ruddy skulls, but mine is white. 

i. 

The Indians paint their Devils so, 
And 'tis a hated mark we know, 
For never any aim aright 
That do not strive to hit the white : 
The Eagle threw her shell-fish down, 
To crack in pieces such a crown : 
Alas, a stinking onions head 
Is white like thine, but mine is red. 

2. [White's] 

Red like to a blood-shot eye, 

Provoking all that see 't to cry : 

For shame nere vaunt thy colours thus 

Since 'tis an eye-sore unto us ; 

Those locks I'd swear, did I not know't, 

Were threds of some red petticoat ; 
No Bedlams oaker'd armes afright 
So much as thine, but mine is white. 

Now 



Songs and Sonnets. 1 3 

1. 

Now if thou'lt blaze thy armes He shew't, 

My head doth love no petticoat, 

My face on one side is as faire 

As on the other is my haire, 

So that I bear by Herauld's rules, 

Party per pale Argent and Gules. 

Then laugh not 'cause my hair is red, 
He swear that mine's a noble head. 

I. [2. White Head's Reply.] 

The Scutcheon of my field doth beare 

One onely field, and that is rare, 

For then methinks that thine should yeild, 

Since mine long since hath won the field ; 

Besides, all the notes that be, 

White is the note of Chastity, 

So that without all feare or dread, 
He swear that mine's a maidenhead. 

1. 

There's no Camelion red like me, 

Nor white, perhaps, thou'lt say, like thee • 

Why then that mine is farre above 

Thy haire, by statute I can prove ; 

What ever there doth seem divine 

Is added to a Rubrick line, 

Which whosoever hath but read, 
Will grant that mine's a lawful head. 

Yet 



14 Choice Drollery, 

2. [White Head.] 

Yet adde what thou maist, which by yeares, 
Crosses, troubles, cares and feares, ; 
For that kind nature gave to me 
In youth a white head, as you see, 
At which, though age it selfe repine, 
It ne're shall change a haire of mine ; 

And all shall say when I am am dead, 

I onely had a constant head. 

i. 

Yes faith, in that He condescend, 
That our dissention here may end, 
Though heads be alwaies by the eares, 
Yet ours shall be more noble peeres : 
For I avouch since I began, 
Under a colour all was done. 

Then let us mix the White and Red, 
And both shall make a beauteous head. 

i. 

We mind our heads man all this time[,] 

And beat them both about this rime ; 

And I confesse what gave offence 

Was but a haires difference. 

And that went too as I dare sweare 

In both of us against the haire ; 

Then joyntly now for what is said 
Lets crave a pardon from our head. 

Son- 



Songs and Sonnets. 15 




W¥? 



SONNET. 

SHall I think because some clouds 
The beauty of my Mistris shrouds, 
To look after another Star ? 
Those to Cynthia servants are; 
May the stars when I doe sue, 
In their anger shoot me through ; 
Shall I shrink at stormes of rain, 
Or be driven back again, 
Or ignoble like a worm, 
Be a slave unto a storm ? 
Pity he should ever tast 
The Spring that feareth Winters blast ; 
Fortune and Malice then combine, 
Spight of either I am thine \ 
And to be sure keep thou my heart, 
And let them wound my worser part, 
Which could they kill, yet should I bee 
Alive again, when pleaseth thee. 



On 



1 6 Choice Drollery, 




On the Flower-de-luce in 
Oxford, 

A Stranger coming to the town, 
Went to the Flower-de-luce, 
A place that seem'd in outward shew 
For honest men to use ; 

And finding all things common there, 

That tended to delight, 
By chance upon the French disease 

It was his hap to light. 

And lest that other men should fare 

As he had done before, 
As he went forth he wrote this down 

Upon the utmost doore. 

All you that hither chance to come, 

Mark well ere you be in, 
The Frenchmens arms are signs without 

Of Frenchmens harms within. 



[ALDOB&ANDINO,] Jack 



Songs and Sonnets. ly 




ALDOBRANDINO, a fat Cardinal. 

NEver was humane soule so overgrown, 
With an unreasonable Cargazon 
Of flesh, as Aldobrandine, whom to pack, 
No girdle serv'd lesse than the zodiack : 
So thick a Giant, that he now was come 
To be accounted an eighth hill in Rome, 
And as the learn'd Tostatus kept his age, 
Writing for every day he liv'd a page ; 
So he no lesse voluminous then that 
Added each day a leaf, but 'twas of fat. 

The choicest beauty that had been devis'd 
By Nature, was by her parents sacrific'd 
Up to this Monster, upon whom to try, 
If as increase, he could, too, multiply. 

Oh how I tremble lest the tender maid 
Should dye like a young infant over-laid ! 
For when this Chaos would pretend to move 
And arch his back for the strong act of Love, 
He fals as soon orethrown with his own weight, 
And with his mines doth the Princesse fright. 
She lovely Martyr) there lyes stew'd and prest, 
Like flesh under the tarr'd saddle drest, 
And seemes to those that look on them in bed, 
Larded with him, rather than married. 

c Oft 



Choice Drollery, 



Oft did he cry, but still in vain [,] to force 
His fatnesse [,] powerfuller then a divorce : 
No herbs, no midwives profit, here, nor can 
Of his great belly free the teeming man. 
What though he drink the vinegars most fine, 
They do not wast his fleshy Apennine ; 
His paunch like some huge Istmos runs between 
The amarous Seas, and lets them not be seen \ 
Yet a new Dedalus invented how 
This Bull with his Pasiphae might plow. 

Have you those artificial torments known, 
With which long sunken Galeos are thrown 
Again on Sea, or the dead Galia 
Was rais'd that once behinde St. Peters lay : 
By the same rules he this same engine made, 
With silken cords in nimble pullies laid ; 
And when his Genius prompteth his slow part 
To works of Nature, which he helps with Art : 
First he intangles in those woven bands, 
His groveling weight, and ready to commands, 
The sworn Prinadas of his bed, the Aids 
Of Loves Camp, necessary Chambermaids ; 
Each runs to her known tackling, hasts to hoyse, 
And in just distance of the urging voyce, 
Exhorts the labour till he smiling rise 
To the beds roof, and wonders how he flies. 

Thence as the eager Falcon having spy'd 

Fowl at the brook, or by the Rivers side, 

Hangs in the middle Region of the aire, 

So hovers he, and plains above his faire : 

Blest 



Songs and Sonnets. 19 

Blest Icarus first melted at those beames, 
That he might after fall into those streames, 
And there allaying his delicious flame, 
In that sweet Ocean propogate his name. 

Unable longer to delay, he calls 
To be let down, and in short measure falls 
Toward his Mistresse, that without her smock 
Lies naked as Andromeda at the Rock, 
And through the Skies see her wing'd Perseus strike 
Though for his bulk, more that sea-monster like. 
Mean time the Nurse, who as the most discreet, 
Stood governing the motions at the feet, 
And ballanc'd his descent, lest that amisse 
He fell too fast, or that way more than this \ 
Steeres the Prow of the pensile Gallease, 
Right on Loves Harbour the Nymph lets him pass 
Over the Chains, & 'tween the double Fort 
Of her incastled knees, which guard the Port. 
The Burs as she had learnt still diligent, 
Now girt him backwards, now him forwards bent ; 
Like those that levell'd in tough Cordage, teach 
The mural Ram, and guide it to the Breach. 



c 2 Jack 



20 



Choice Drollery, 



Jack af Lent's Ballat. 

[On the welcoming of Queen Henrietta Maria, 1625]. 
1. 

List you Nobles, and attend, 
For here's a Ballat newly penn'd 
I took it up in Kent, 
If any ask who made the same, 
To him I say the authors name 

Is honest Jack of Lent. 

2. 
But ere I farther passe along, 
Or let you know more of my Song, 

I wish the doores were lockt, 
For if there be so base a Groom, 
As one informes me in this room, 

The Fidlers may be knockt. 



Tis true, he had, I dare protest, 
No kind of malice in his brest, 

But Knaves are dangerous things ; 
And they of late are grown so bold, 
They dare appeare in cloth of Gold, 

Even in the roomes of Kings. 

But 



Songs and Sonnets. 2 1 

4- 
But hit or misse I will declare 
The speeches at London and elsewhere, 

Concerning this design, 
Amongst the Drunkards it is said, 
They hope her dowry shall be paid 

In nought but Clarret wine. 

5- 
The Country Clowns when they repaire 
Either to Market or to Faire, 

No sooner get their pots, 
But straight they swear the time is come 
That England must be over-run 

Betwixt the French and Scots. 
6. 
The Puritans that never fayle 
'Gainst Kings and Magistrates to rayle, 

With impudence aver, 
That verily, and in good sooth, 
Some Antichrist, or pretty youth, 

Shall doubtlesse get of her. 

7- 
A holy Sister having hemm'd 
And blown her nose, will say she dream'd, 

Or else a Spirit told her, 
That they and all these holy seed, 
To Amsterdam must go to breed, 

Ere they were twelve months older. 
c 3 And 



22 Choice Drollery, 

8. 

And might but yack Alent advise, 

Those dreams of theirs should not prove lies. 

For as he greatly feares, 
They will be prating night and day, 
Till verily, by yea, and nay, 

They set's together by th' ears. # 

9- 

The Romish Catholiques proclaim, 
That Gundemore, though he be lame, 

Yet can he do some tricks ; 
At Paris, he the King shall show 
A pre-contract made, as I know, 

Five hundred twenty six. 

10. 

But sure the State of France is wise, 

And knowes that Spain vents naught but lies, 

For such is their Religion ; 
The Jesuits can with ease disgorge 
From that their damn'd and hellish forge, 

Foule falshood by the Legion. 
n. 
But be it so, we will admit, 
The State of Spain hath no more wit, 

Then to invent such tales, 
Yet as great Alexander drew, 
And cut the Gorgon Knot in two, 

So shall the Prince of Wales. 

The 



Svngs and Sonnets. 2$ 

12. 

The reverend Bishops whisper too, 
That now they shall have much adoe 

With Friers and with Monks, 
And eke their wives do greatly feare 
Those bald pate knaves will mak't appeare 

They are Canonical punks. 

13. 
At Cambridge and at Oxford eke, 
They of this match like Schollers speak 

By figures and by tropes, 
But as for the Supremacy, 
The Body may King James's be, 

But sure the Head's the Pope's. 
14. 
A Puritan stept up and cries, 
That he the major part denies, 

And though he Logick scorns, 
Yet he by revelation knows 
The Pope no part o' th 5 head-piece ows 

Except it be the horns. 

The learned in Astrologie, 

That wander up and down the sky, 

And their discourse with stars, [there] 
Foresee that some of this brave rout 
That now goes faire and soundly out, 

Shall back return with scars. 

c 4 Profess- 



24 



Choice Drollery, 



1 6. 

Professors of Astronomy, 

That all the world knows, dare not lie 

With the Mathematicians, 
Prognosticate this Somer shall 
Bring with the pox the Devil and all, 

To Surgeons and Physitians. 

17. 

The Civil Lawyer laughs in's sleeve, 
For he doth verily believe 

That after all these sports, 
The Cit[i]zens will horn and grow, 
And their ill-gotten goods will throw 

About their bawdy Courts. 
18. 
And those that do Apollo court, 
And with the wanton Muses sport, 

Believe the time is come, 
That Gallants will themselves addresse 
To Masques & Playes, & Wantonnesse, 

More than to fife and drum. 
19. 
Such as in musique spend their dayes, 
And study Songs and Roundelayes, 

Begin to cleare their throats, 
For by some signes they do presage, 
That this will prove a fidling age 

Fit for men of their coats. 



But 



Songs and Sonnet\s\ 25 

20. 
But leaving Colleges and Schools, 
To all those Clerks and learned Fools, 

Lets through the city range, 
For there are Sconces made of Horn, 
Foresee things long ere they be born, 

Which you'l perhaps think strange. 
21. 
The Major and Aldermen being met, [Mayor] 
And at a Custard closely set 

Each in their rank and order, 
The Major a question doth propound, 
And that unanswer'd must go round, 

Till it comes to th' Recorder. 
22. 
For he's the Citys Oracle, 
And which you'l think a Miracle, 

He hath their brains in keeping, 
For when a Cause should be decreed, 
He cries the bench are all agreed, 

When most of them are sleeping. 

23- 

A Sheriff at lower end o' th' board 
Cries Masters all hear me a word, 

A bolt He onely shoot, 
We shall have Executions store 
Against some gallants now gone o're, 

Wherefore good brethren look to't. 

The 



26 Choice Drollery, 

24. 
. The rascall Sergeants fleering stand, 
Wishing their Charter reacht the Strand, 

That they might there intrude ; 
But since they are not yet content, 
I wish that it to Tyburn went, 

So they might there conclude. 

25- 
An Alderman both grave and wise 
Cries brethren all let me advise, 

Whilst wit is to be had, 
That like good husbands we provide 
Some speeches for the Lady bride, 

Before all men go mad. 
26. 
For by my faith if we may guesse 
Of greater mischiefs by the lesse, 

I pray let this suffice, 
If we but on men's backs do look, 
And look into each tradesmans book 

You'l swear few men are wise. 
27. 
Some thred-bare Poet we will presse, 
And for that day we will him dresse, 

At least in beaten Sattin, 
And he shall tell her from this bench, 
That though we understand no French, 

At Pauls she may hear Lattin. 

But 






Songs and Sonnets. 2*j 

28. 
But on this point they all demurre, 
And each takes counsell of his furre 

That smells of Fox and Cony, 
At last a Mayor in high disdain, 
Swears he much scoms that in his reign 

Wit should be bought for mony. 
29. 
For by this Sack I mean to drink, 
I would not have my Soveraign think 

for twenty thousand Crownes, 
That I his Lord Lieutenant here, 
And you my brethren should appear 

Such errant witlesse Clownes. 

3°- 
No, no, I have it in my head, 
Devises that shall strike it dead, 

And make proud Paris say 
That little London hath a Mayor 
Can entertain their Lady faire, 

As well as ere did they. 

3i- 
S. Georges Church shall be the place 
Where first I mean to meet her grace, 

And there St George shall be 
Mounted upon a dapple gray, 
And gaping wide shall seem to say, 

Welcome St. Dennis to me, 

From 



28 



Choice Drollery, 



32. 
From thence in order two by two 
As we to Pauls are us'd to goe, 

To th' Bridge we will convey her, 
And there upon the top o' th' gate, 
Where now stands many a Rascal's pate, 

I mean to place a player. 

33- 

And to the Princess he shall cry, 

May't please your Grace, cast up your eye 

And see these heads of Traytors ; 
Thus will the city serve all those 
That to your Highnesse shall prove foes, 

For they to Knaves are haters. 

34. 
Down Fishstreet hill a Whale shall shoot, 
And meet her at the Bridges foot, 

And forth of his mouth so wide a 
Shall yonas peep, and say, for fish, 
As good as your sweet-heart can wish, 

You shall have hence each Friday. 

35- 
At Grace-church corner there shall stand 
A troop of Graces hand in hand, 

And they to her shall say, 
Your Grace of France is welcome hither, 
'Tis merry when Graces meet together, 

I pray keep on your way. 

At 



Songs and Sonnets. 2< 

36- 

At the Exchange shall placed be, 
In ugly shapes those sisters three 

That give to each their fate, 
And Spainfs Infanta shall stand by- 
Wringing their hands, and thus shall cry, 

I do repent too late. 

37- 
There we a paire of gloves will give, 
And pray her Highnesse long may live 

On her white hands to wear them ; 
And though they have a Spanish scent, 
The givers have no ill intent, 

Wherefore she need not feare them. 

38. 

Nor shall the Conduits now run Claret, 
Perhaps the Frenchman cares not for it, 

They have at home so much, 
No, I will make the boy to pisse 
No worse then purest Hypocris, 

Her Grace ne're tasted such. 

39- 
About the Standard I think fit 
Your wives, my brethren, all should sit, 
And eke our Lady Mayris, 
Who shall present a cup of gold, 
And say if we might be bold, 

We'l drink to all in Paris. 

In 



30 Choice Drollery, 

40. 
In Pauls Church-yard we breath may take, 
For they such huge long speeches make, 

Would tire any horse ; 
But there He put her grace in minde, 
To cast her Princely head behind 

And view S. Paul's Crosse, 

Our Sergeants they shall go their way, 
And for us at the Devil stay, 

I mean at Temple-barre, 
And there of her we leave will take, 
And say 'twas for King Charls his sake 

We went with her so farre. 
42. 
But fearing I have tir'd the eares, 
Both of the Duke and all these Peeres, 

He be no more uncivill, 
He leave the Mayor with both the Sheriffs, 
With Sergeants, hanging at their sleeves, 

For this time at the Devill. 



Songs and Sonnets. 



3i 



A SONG. 

A Story strange I will you tell, 
But not so strange as true, 
Of a woman that danc'd upon the ropes, 
And so did her husband too. 
With a dildo, dildo, dildo, 
With a dildo, dildo, dee, 
Some say Hwas a man, but it was a woman 
As plain report may see. 

She first climb'd up the Ladder 
For to deceive men's hopes, 
And with a long thing in her hand 
She tickled it on the ropes. 
With a dildo, dildo, dildo, 
With a dildo, dildo, dee, 
And to her came Knights and Gentlemen 
Of low and high degree. 



She jerk'd them backward and fore ward 
With a long thing in her hand, 

And all the people that were in the yard, 
She made them for to stand. 
With a dildo, &c. 



They 



3 2 Choice Drollery, 

They cast up fleering eyes 

All under-neath her cloaths, 
But they could see no thing, 

For she wore linnen hose. 
With a dildo, &c. 

The Cuckold her husband caper'd 
When his head in the sack was in, 

But grant that we may never fall 
When we dance in the sack of sin. 
With a dildo, &c. 

And as they ever danc't 

In faire or rainy weather, 
I wish they may be hang'd i' th' rope of Love, 

And so be cut down together. 
With a dildo, &c. 



Upon 



Songs and Sonnets. 



33 




Upon a House of Office over a 

River, set on fire by a 
coale of TOBACCO. 

OH fire, fire, fire, where? 
The usefull house o're Water cleare, 
The most convenient in a shire, 
Wliich no body can deny, 

The house of Office that old true blue 
Sir-reverence so many knew [,] 
You now may see turn'd fine new. [? fire] 
Which no body, &c. 

And to our great astonishment 
Though burnt, yet stands to represent 
Both mourner and the monument, 
Which no body, &c. 

Ben Johnson's Vulcan would doe well, 
Or the merry Blades who knacks did tell, 
At firing London Bridge befell. 
Which 7io body, &c. 

d They 



34 Choice Drollery, 

They'l say if I of thee should chant, 
The matter smells, now out upon't ; 
But they shall have a fit of fie on't. 
Which no body, &c. 

And why not say a word or two 
Of she that's just ? witness all who 
Have ever been at thy Ho go,* *Haut goust. 
Which no body, &c. 

Earth, Aire, and Water, she could not 
Affront, till chollerick fire got 
Predominant, then thou grew'st hot, 
Which no body, &c. 

The present cause of all our wo, 
But from Tobacco ashes, oh ! 

'Twas s n luck to perish so, 

Which no body, &c 

Tis fatall to be built on lakes, 
As Sodom's fall example makes ; 
But pity to the innocent jakes, 
Which no body, &c 

Whose genius if I hit aright, 
May be conceiv'd Hermophrodite, 
To both sex common when they sh . . . 
Which no body, &c. 

Of 



Songs and Sonnets. 35 

Of severall uses it hath store, 
As Midwifes some do it implore, 
But the issue comes at Postern door : 
Which no body, &c. 

Retired mortalls out of feare, 
Privily, even to a haire, 
Did often do their business there, 
Which no body, &c. 



For mens and womens secrets fit 
No tale-teller, though privy to it, 
And yet they went to't without feare or wit, 
Which no body, &c. 

A Privy Chamber or prison'd roome, 
And all that ever therein come 
Uncover must, or bide the doome, 
Which no body, &c. 

A Cabinet for richest geare 
The choicest of the Ladys ware, 
And pretious stones full many there. 
Which no body, &c. 

And where in State sits noble duck, 
Many esteem that use of nock, 
The highest pleasure next to oc - 
Which no body, &c. 

d 2 And 



36 Choice Drollery, 

And yet the hose there down did goe, 
The yielding smock came up also, 
But still no Bawdy house I trow, 
Which no body, &c. 

There nicest maid with naked r . . . , 
When straining hard had made her mump, 
Did sit at ease and heare it p. ... , 
Which no body, &c. 

Like the Dutch Skipper now may skit, 
When in his sleeve he did do it, 
She may skit free, but now plimp niet, 
Which 110 body, &c. 

Those female folk that there did haunt, 
To make their filled bellies gaunt, 
And with that same the brook did launt, 
Which no body, &c. 

Are driven now to do't on grasse, 
And make a sallet for their A . . . 
The world is come to a sweet passe, 
Which no body, &c. 

Now farewell friend we held so deare, 
Although thou help'st away with our cheare, 
An open house-keeper all the yeare, 
Which no body, &c. 

The 



Songs and Sonnets. $J 

The Phoenix in her perfumed flame, 
Was so consum'd, and thou the same, 
But the Aromaticks were to blame, 
Which no body, &c. 

That Phoenix is but one thing twice, 
Thy Patron nobler then may rise, 
For who can tell what he'l devise ? 
Which no body, &c. 

DiancCs Temple was not free, 
Nor that world Rome, her Majesty 
Smelt of the smoke, as well as thee, 
Which no body, &c. 

And learned Clerks whom we admire, 
Do say the world shall so expire, 
Then when you sh . . remember fire. 
Which no body, &c. 

Beware of fire when you scumber, 
Though to sh . . fire were a wonder, 
Yet lightning oft succeeds the thunder, 
Which no body, &c. 

We must submit to what fate sends, 
'Tis wholsome counsel to our friends, 
Take heed of smoking at both ends, 
Which no body ca?i deny. 

Upon 
D3 



38 Choice Drollery, 




Upon the Spanish Invasion 
in Eighty eight, 

i. 

IN Eighty eight, ere I was born, 
As I do well remember a, 
In August was a Fleet prepar'd 
The month before September a. 

2. 
Lisbone, Cales and Portugall [Cales, i.e. Cadiz.] 
Toledo and Grenada; 
They all did meet, & made a Fleet, 
And calPd it their Armada. 

3- 
There dwelt a little man in Spain 
That shot well in a gun a ; 
Don Pedro hight, as black a wight 
As the Knight of the Sun a. 

4- 
King Philip made him Admirall, 
And charg'd him not to stay a, 
But to destroy both man and boy, 
And then to come his way a. 

He 



Songs and Sonnets, 39 

5- 
He had thirty thousand of his own, 
But to do us more harm a, 
He charg'd him not to fight alone, 
But to joyn with the Prince til Parma. 

6. 

They say they brought provision much 
As Biskets, Beans and Bacon, 
Besides, two ships were laden with whips, 
But I think they were mistaken. 

7- 
When they had sailed all along, 
And anchored before Dover, 
The English men did board them then, 
And heav'd the Rascalls over. 

8. 

The queen she was at Tilbury, 
What could you more desire a ? 
For whose sweet sake Sir Francis Drake 
Did set the ships on fire a. 

9- 
Then let them neither brag nor boast, 
For if they come again a, 
Let them take heed they do not speed 
As they did they know when a. 

Upon 
d 4 



40 Choice Drollery, 

Upon the Gun-powder Plot. 
i. 

ANd will this wicked world never prove good ? 
Will Priests and Catholiques never prove true ? 
Shall Catesby, Piercy and Rookwood 
Make all this famous Land to rue I 
With putting us in such a feare, 

With huffing and snuffing and guni-powder, 
With a Ohone hononoreera tarrareera, tarrareero 

(hone. 
2. 
'Gainst the fifth of November, Tuesday by name, 
Peircy and Catesby a Plot did frame, 
Anno one thousand six hundred and five, 
In which long time no man alive 
Did ever know, or heare the like, 
Which to declare my heart growes sike. 
With a O hone, &c. 

Under the Parliament-house men say 
Great store of Powder they did lay, 
Thirty six barrels, as is reported, 
With many faggots ill consorted, 
With barres of iron upon them all, 
To bring us to a deadly fall. 
With a O hone, &c. 

And 



Songs and Sonnets. 41 

4- 
And then came forth Sir Thomas Knyvet, 
You filthy Rogue come out 6' th' doore, 
Or else I sweare by Gods trivet 
He lay thee flatlong on the floore, 
For putting us all in such a feare, 
With huffing and snuffing, &c. 

5- 
Then Faux out of the vault was taken 

And carried before Sir Francis Bacon, 

And was examined of the Act, 

And strongly did confesse the Fact, 

And swore he would put us in such a feare. 

With huffing, &c. 
6. 
Now see it is a miraculous thing, 
To see how God hath preserv'd our King, 
The Queen, the Prince, and his Sister dear, 
And all the Lords, and every Peere, 
And all the Land, and every shire, 

From huffing, &c. 

7- 
Now God preserve the Council wise, 
That first found out this enterprise; 
Not they, but my Lord Monteagle, 
His Lady and her little Beagle, 
His Ape, his Ass, and his great Beare, 

From huffing, and snuffing, and gunni-powder. 

Other 



42 Choice Drollery, 

[8.] 
Other newes I heard moreover, 
If all was true that's told to me, 
Three Spanish ships landed at Dover, 
Where they made great melody, 
But the Hollanders drove them here and there, 
With huffing, &c. 



A CATCH. 

DRink boyes, drink boyes, drink and doe 
not spare, 
Troule away the bowl, and take no care. 
So that we have meat and drink, and money 

and clothes 
What care we, what care we how the world 
goes. 



Songs and Sonnets. 43 




A pitiful Lamentation. 

MY Mother hath sold away her Cock 
And all her brood of Chickins, 
And hath bought her a new canvasse smock 
And righted up the Kitchin. 
And has brought me a Lockeram bond 
With a v'lopping paire of breeches, 
Thinking that Jone would have lov'd me alone, 
But she hath serv'd me such yfiches. 
Ise take a rope and drowne my selfe, 
Ere 1st indure these losses : 
Ise take a hatchet and hang my selfe 
Ere 1st indure these crosses. 
Or else He go to some beacon high, 
Made of some good dry'd furzon [,] 
And there He seeme in love to fry 
Sing hoodie a doodle Cuddon. 



44 



Choice Drollery, 




A Woman with Child that de- 
sired a Son, which might 
prove a Preacher. 

A Maiden of the pure Society, 
Pray'd with a passing piety 
That since a learned man had o're-reacht her, 
The child she went withall should prove [a] 

Preacher. 
The time being come, and all the dangers past, 
The Goodwife askt the Midwife 
What God had sent at last. 
Who answered her half in a laughter, 
Quoth she the Son is prov'd a Daughter. 
But be content, if God doth blesse the Baby, 
She has a Pulpit where a Preacher may be. 



The 



Songs and Sonnets. 45 

The Maid of Tottenham. 
1. 

AS I went to Totnam 
Upon a Market-day, 
There met I with a faire maid 
Cloathed all in gray, 
Her journey was to London 
With Buttermilk and Whay, 

To fall down, down, derry down, 
down, down, derry down, 
derry, derry dina. 
2. 
God speed faire maid, quoth one, 
You are well over-took ; 
With that she cast her head aside, 
And gave to him a look. 
She was as full of Leachery 
As letters in a book. 

To fall down, &c. 

3- 
And as they walk'd together, 

Even side by side, 

The young man was aware 

That her garter was unty'd, 

For feare that she should lose it, 

Aha, alack he cry'd, 

Oh your garter that hangs down ! 

Down, down, derry down, &c. 

Quoth 



46 Choice Drollery, 

4- 
Quoth she [,] I do intreat you 
For to take the pain 
To do so much for me, 
As to tye it up again. 
That will I do sweet-heart, quoth he, 
When I come on yonder plain. 

With a down, down, derry down, &c. 

5- 
And when they came upon the plain 
Upon a pleasant green, 
The fair maid spread her 1.. . s abroad, 
The young man fell between, 
Such tying of a Garter 
I think was never seen. 
To fall down, &c. 

6. 

When they had done their businesse, 

And quickly done the deed, 

He gave her kisses plenty, 

Aed took her up with speed. 

But what they did I know not, 

But they were both agreed 

To fall down together, down 
Down, down, derry down, 
Down, down, derry dina. 

She 



Songs and Sonnets. 47 

7- 
She made to him low curtsies 
And thankt him for his paine, 
The young man is to High-gate gone [,] 
The maid to London came 
To sell off her commodity 
She thought it for no shame. 
To fall downe, &c. 

8. 
When she had done her market, 
And all her money told 
To think upon the matter 
It made her heart full cold [:] 
But that which will away, quoth she, 
Is very hard to hold. 

To fall down, &c. 

9. 

This tying of the Garter 
Cost her her Maidenhead, 
Quoth she it is no matter, 
It stood me in small stead, 
But often times it troubled me 
As I lay in my bed. 

To fall down, &c. 



To 



4 8 



Choice Drollery, 




To the King on New-yeares 
day, 1638. 

THis day inlarges every narrow mind, 
Makes the Poor bounteous, and the Miser 
kind ; 
Poets that have not wealth in wisht excesse, 
I hope may give like Priests, which is to blesse. 
And sure in elder times the Poets were 
Those Priests that told men how to hope and feare, 
Though they most sensually did write and live, 
Yet taught those blessings, which the Gods did give, 
But you (my King) have purify'd our flame, 
Made wit our virtue which was once our shame ; 
For by your own quick fires you made ours last, 
Reform'd our numbers till our songs grew chast. 
Farre more thou fam'd Augustus ere could doe 
With's wisdome, ( though it long continued too ) 
You have perform'd even in your Moon of age ; 
Refin'd to Lectures, Playes, to Schooles a stage. 
Such vertue got [,] why is your Poet lesse 
A Priest then his who had a power to blesse ? 

So 



Songs and Sonnets. 49 

So hopefull is my rage that I begin 

To shew that feare which strives to keep it in : 

And what was meant a blessing soars so high 

That it is now become a Prophesie. 

Your selfe (our Plannet which renewes our year) 

Shall so inlighten all, and every where, 

That through the Mists of error men shall spy 

In the dark North the way to Loyalty ; 

Whilst with your intellectuall beames, you show 

The knowing what they are that seeme to know. 

You like our Sacred and indulgent Lord, 

When the too -stout Apostle drew his sword, 

When he mistooke some secrets of the cause, 

And in his furious zeale disdain'd the Lawes, 

Forgetting true Religion doth lye 

On prayers, not swords against authority. 

You like our substitute of horrid fate 

That are next him we most should imitate, 

Shall like to him rebuke with wiser breath, 

Such furious zeale, but not reveng'd with death. 

Like him the wound that's giv'n you strait shall heal, 

Then calm by precept such mistaking zeal. 

In praise of a deformed woman. 
1. 

I Love thee for thy curled haire, 
As red as any Fox, 
Our forefathers did still commend 

The lovely golden locks. 
Venus her self might comelier be, 
Yet hath no such variety. 

E I 



50 Choice Drollery, 

2. 
I love thee for thy squinting eyes, 

It breeds no jealousie, 
For when thou do'st on others look, 
Methinks thou look'st on me, 
Venus her self, &c. 

3- 

I love thee for thy copper nose, 
Thy fortune's ne're the worse, 

It shews the mettal in thy face 
Thou should'st have in thy purse, 
Venus her self, &c. 

4- 

I love thee for thy Chessenut skin, 
Thy inside's white to me, 

That colour should be most approv'd, 
That will least changed be. 
Venus her self, &c. 

5- 

I love thee for thy splay mouth, 
For on that amarous close 

There's room on either side to kisse, 
And ne're offend the nose. 
Venus her self, &c. 

6. 

I love thee for thy rotten gummes, 
In good time it may hap, 

When other wives are costly fed, 
He keep thy chaps on pap. 
Venus her self, &c. 



Songs and Sonnets. 5 * 

7- 
I love thee for thy blobber lips, 

Tis good thrift I suppose, 
They're dripping-pans unto thy eyes, 
And save-alls to thy nose. 
Venus her self, &c. 

8. 
I love thee for thy huncht back, 

'Tis bow'd although not broken, 
For I believe the Gods did send 
Me to Thee for a Token. 
Venus her self, &c. 

9- 

I love thee for thy pudding wast, 

If a Taylor thou do'st lack, 
Thou need'st not send to France for one, 

He fit thee with a sack. 
Venus her self, &c. 

io. 

I love thee for thy lusty thighes 

For tressels thou maist boast, 

Sweet-heart thou hast a water-mill, 

And these are the mill-posts. 

Venus her self, &c. 

| II.] io. 
I love thee for thy splay feet, 

They're fooles that thee deride, 

Women are alwaies most esteem'd, 

When their feet are most wide. 

Venus her self may comelier be, &c. 

e 2 On 



5 2 Choice Drollery. 

On a TINKER. 

HE that a Tinker, a Tinker, a Tinker will be, 
Let him leave other Loves, and come fol- 
low me. 

Though he travells all the day, 

Yet he comes home still at night, 

And dallies, dallies with his Doxie, 

And dreames of delight. 

His pot and his tost in the morning he takes, 

And all the day long good musick he makes ; 

He wanders up and down to Wakes & to Fairs, 

He casts his cap, and casts his cap at the Court 
and its cares ; 

And when to the town the Tinker doth come, 

Oh, how the wanton wenches run, 

Some bring him basons, and some bring him bowles, 

All maids desire him to stop up their holes. 

Prinkum Prankum is a fine dance, strong Ale is 
good in the winter, 

And he that thrumms a wench upon a brass pot, 

The child may prove a Tinker. 

With tink goes the hammer, the skellit and the 
scummer, 

Come bring me thy copper kettle, 

For the Tinker, the Tinker, the merry merry Tinker 

Oh, he's the man of mettle. 

Upon 



Songs and Sonnets. 53 



Upon his Mistriss black 
Eye-browes. 

Hide, oh hide those lovely Browes, 
Cupid takes them for his bowes, 
And from thence with winged dart 
He lies pelting at my heart, 
Nay, unheard-of wounds doth give, 
Wounded in the heart I live ; 
From their colour I descry, 
Loves bowes are made of Ebony ; 
Or their Sable seemes to say 
They mourn for those their glances slay ; 
Or their blacknesse doth arise 
From the Sun-beams of your eyes, 
Where Apollo seemes to sit, 
As he's God of Day and Wit ; 
Your piercing Rayes, so bright, and cleare, 
Shewes his beamy Chariots there. 
Then the black upon your brow, 
Sayest wisdomes sable hue, [ ? sagest ] 

Tells to every obvious eye, 
There's his other Deity. 
This too shewes him deeply wise, 
To dwell there he left the skies ; 

e 3 So 



54 Choice Drollery \ 

So pure a black could Phoebus burn, 
He himself would Negro turn, 
And for such a dresse would slight 
His gorgeous attire of light ; 
Eclipses he would count a blisse, 
Were there such a black as this : 
Were Night's dusky mantle made 
Of so glorious a shade, 
The ruffling day she would out-vie 
In costly dresse, and gallantry : 
Were Hell's darknesse such a black, 
For it the Saints would Heaven forsake ; 
So pure a black, that white from hence 
Loses its name of innocence ; 
And the most spotlesse Ivory is 
A very stain and blot to this : 
So pure a black, that hence I guesse, 
Black first became a holy dresse. 
The Gods foreseeing this, did make 
Their Priests array themselves in Black. 



lo 



Songs and Sonnets. 55 




To my Lady of Carnarvon, 
January 1. 

IDol of our Sex ! Envy of thine own ! 
Whom not t' have seen, is never to have known, 
What eyes are good for ; to have seen, not lov'd, 
Is to be more, or lesse then man, unmov'd ; 
Deigne to accept, what I i' th' name of all 
Thy Servants pay to this dayes Festival, 
Thanks for the old yeare, prayers for the new, 
So may thy many dayes to come seeme few, 
So may fresh springs in thy blew rivolets flow, 
To make thy roses, and thy lillies grow. 
So may all dressings still become thy face, 
As if they grew there, or stole thence their grace. 
So may thy bright eyes comfort with their rayes 
Th' humble, and dazle those that boldly gaze : 
So may thy sprightly motion, beauties best part, 
Shew there is stock enough of life at heart. 
So may thy warm snow never grow more cold, 
So may they live to be, but not seem old. 
So may thy Lord pay all, yet rest thy debtor, 
And love no other, till he sees a better : 

E 4 SO 



$6 Choice Drollery, 

So may the new year crown the old yeares joy, 

By giving us a Girle unto our Boy ; 

F th' one the Fathers wit, and in the other 

Let us admire the beauty of the Mother, 

That so we may their severall pictures see, 

Which now in one fair Medall joyned be : 

Till then grow thus together, and howe're 

You grow old in your selves, grow stil young here ; 

And let him, though he may resemble either, 

Seem to be both in one, and singly neither. 

Let Ladies wagers lay, whose chin is this, 

Whose forehead that, whose lip, whose eye, then kiss 

Away the difference, whilst he smiling lies, 

To see his own shape dance in both your eyes. 

Sweet Babe ! my prayer shall end with thee, 

( Oh may it prove a Prophecy !) 

May all the channels in thy veynes 

Expresse the severall noble straines, 

From whence they flow ; sweet Sydney's wit, 

But not the sad, sweet fate of it ; 

The last great Pembroke's learning, sage 

Burleigh's both wisdome and his age ; 

Thy Grandsires honest heart expresse 

The Veres untainted noblenesse. 

To these ( if any thing there lacks ) 

Adde Dormer too, and Molenax. 

Lastly, if for thee I can woo 

Gods, and thy Godfathers grace too, 

Together with thy Fathers Thrift : 

Be thou thy Mothers New-years gift. 

The 



Songs and Sonnets. 



57 




The Western Husband-man s 
Co7nplaint in the late Wars. 

UDs bodykins ! Chill work no more : 
Dost think chill labour to be poor ? 
No ich have more a do : 
If of the world this be the trade, 
That ich must break zo knaves be made, 

Ich will a blundering too. [plundering] 






Chill zel my cart and eke my plow, 
And get a zword if ich know how, 

For ich mean to be right : 
Chill learn to zwear, and drink, and roar, 
And (Gallant leek) chill keep a whore, [like] 

No matter who can vight. 



God bless us ! What a world is here, 
It can ne're last another year, 

Vor ich can't be able to zoe : 
Dost think that ever chad the art, 
To plow the ground up with my cart, 

My beasts be all a go. 



But 



58 Choice Drollery, 

But vurst a Warrant ich will get 
From Master Captaine, that a vet 

Chill make a shrewd a do : 
Vor then chave power in any place, 
To steal a Horse without disgrace, 

And beat the owner too. 

Ich had zix oxen tother day, 

And them the Roundheads vetcht away, 

A mischiefe be their speed : 
And chad zix horses left me whole, 
And them the Cabbaleroes stole : 

Chee voor men be agreed. 

Here ich doe labour, toyl and zweat, 
And dure the cold, with dry and heat, 

And what dost think ich get ? 
Vaith just my labour vor my pains, 
The garrisons have all the gains, 

Vor thither all's avet. 

There goes my corne and beanes, and pease, 
Ich doe not dare them to displease, 

They doe zo zwear and vapour : 
When to the Governour ich doe come, 
And pray him to discharge my zum, 

Chave nothing but a paper. 



Uds 



Songs and Sonnets. 59 

U'ds nigs dost think that paper will 
Keep warme my back and belly fill ? 

No, no, goe vange thy note : 
If that another year my vield 
No profit doe unto me yield, 

Ich may goe cut my throat. 

When any money chove in store, 

Then straight a warrant comes therefore, 

Or ich must blundred be : 
And when chave shuffled out one pay, 
Then comes another without delay, 

Was ever the leek azee ? [like] 

If all this be not grief enow, 
They have a thing cald quarter too, 
O'ts a vengeance waster : 

A pox upon't they call it vree, ["free quarters"] 

Cham zure they make us zlaves to be, 
And every rogue our master. 



The 



6o 



Choice Drollery, 




The High-way marts Song. 

I Keep my Horse, I keep my Whore, 
I take no Rents, yet am not poore, 
I traverse all the land about, 
And yet was born to never a foot ; 
With Partridge plump, and Woodcock fine, 
I do at mid-night often dine ; 
And if my whore be not in case, 
My Hostess daughter has her place. 
The maids sit up, and watch their turnes, 
If I stay long the Tapster mourns ; 
The Cook-maid has no mind to sin, 
Though tempted by the Chamberlin ; 
But when I knock, O how they bustle ; 
The hostler yawns, the geldings justle ; 
If maid be sleep, oh how they curse her ! 
And all this comes of, Deliver your purse sir. 



Against 



Songs and Sonnets. 



61 




Against Fruition, &c. 

THere is not half so warme a fire 
In the Fruition, as Desire. 
When I have got the fruit of pain, 
Possession makes me poore again, 
Expected formes and shapes unknown, 
Whet and make sharp tentation ; 
Sense is too niggardly for Bliss, 
And payes me dully with what is ; 
But fancy's liberall, and gives all 
That can within her vastnesse fall ; 
Vaile therefore still, while I divine 
The Treasure of this hidden Mine, 
And make Imagination tell 
What wonders doth in Beauty dwell. 



Upc 



Choice Drollery, 




Upon Mr. Fullers Booke, 
called Pisgah-sight. 

FUller of wish, than hope, methinks it is. 
For me to expect a fuller work than this, 
Fuller of matter, fuller of rich sense. 
Fuller of Art[,] fuller of Eloquence ; 
Yet dare I not be bold, to intitle this 
The fullest work • the Author fuller is, 
Who, though he empty not himself, can fill 
Another fuller, yet continue still 
Fuller himself, and so the Reader be 
Alwayes in hope a fuller work to see. 



On 



Songs and Sonnets. 63 



On a Sheepherd that died 

for Love. 
1. 

CLoris, now thou art fled away, 
AmintcHs Sheep are gone astray, 
And all the joyes he took to see 
His pretty Lambs run after thee. 

Sheis gone, sheets gone, and he alway, 
Sings nothing now but welladay. 

2. 
His Oaten pipe that in thy praise, 
Was wont to play such roundelayes, 
Is thrown away, and not a Swaine 
Dares pipe or sing within this Plaine. 
'Tis death for any noiv to say 
One word to him, but welladay. 

3. 
The May-pole where thy little feet 
So roundly did in measure meet, 
Is broken down, and no content 
Came near Amintas since you went. 
All that ere I heard him say, 
Was Cloris, Cloris, welladay. 

Upon 



6 4 



Choice Drollery, 



4- 
Upon those banks you us'd to tread, 
He ever since hath laid his head, 
And whisper'd there such pining wo, 
That not one blade of grasse will grow. 
Oh Cloris, Cloris, come away, 
And hear Aminta's welladay. 



The embroyder'd scrip he us'd to weare 
Neglected hangs, so does his haire. 
His Crook is broke, Dog pining lyes, 
And he himself nought doth but cryes, 

Oh Cloris, Cloris, come away, 

And hear, &c. 

6. 
His gray coat, and his slops of green, 
When worn by him, were comely seen, 
His tar-box too is thrown away, 
There's no delight neer him must stay, 
But cries, oh Cloris come away, 
Aminta's dying, welladay. 



[The] 



Songs and Sonnets. 65 




The Shepheards lamentation 
for the losse of his Love. 



DOwn lay the Shepheards Swain, 
So sober and demure, 
Wishing for his wench again, 
So bonny and so pure. 
With his head on hillock low, 
And his armes on kembow ; 
And all for the losse of her Hy nonny nonny no. 

2. 
His teares fell as thin, 

As water from a Still, 
His haire upon his chin, 

Grew like tyme upon a hill : 
His cherry cheeks were pale as snow, 
Testifying his mickle woe ; (no. 

And all was for the loss of her hy nonny nonny 

Sweet 



66 Choice Drollery, 

3- 

Sweet she was, as fond of love, 

As ever fettred Swaine ; 
Never such a bonny one 
Shall I enjoy again. 
Set ten thousand on a row, 
He forbid that any show 
Ever the like of her, hy nonny nonny no. 

4. 

Fac'd she was of Filbard hew, 

And bosom'd like a Swanne : 
Back't she was of bended yew, 
And wasted by a span. 
Haire she had as black as Crow, 
From the head unto the toe, 
Down down, all over, hy nonny nonny no. 

5- 

With her Mantle tuck't up high, 

She foddered her Flocke, 
So buckesome and alluringly, 

Her knee upheld her smock ; 
So nimbly did she use to goe, 
So smooth she danc'd on tip-toe, 
That all men were fond of her, hy nonny 
nonny no. 

She 



Songs and Sonnets. 6j 

6. 

She simpred like a Holy-day, 

And smiled like a Spring, 

She pratled like a Popinjay, 

And like a Swallow sing. 

She tript it like a barren Doe, 

And strutted like a Gar-crowe : 

Which made me so fond of her, hy, &c. 

7- 
To trip it on the merry Down, 
To dance the lively Hay, 
To wrastle for a green Gown, 
In heat of all the day, 
Never would she say me no. 
Yet me thought she had though 
Never enough of her, hy, &c. 

8. 
But gone she is [,] the blithest Lasse 

That ever trod on Plain, 
What ever hath betided her, 

Blame not the Shepheard Swain. 
For why, she was her own foe, 
And gave her selfe the overthrowe, 
By being too franke of her hy nonny nonny 
no. 

A 

F 2 



68 



Choice Drollery, 




A Ballad on Queen Elizabeth 
to the tune of Sallengers round. 

ITell you all both great and small, 
And I tell you it truely, 
That we have a very great cause, 

Both to lament and crie, 
Oh fie, oh fie, oh fie, oh fie, 

Oh fie on cruell death • 
For he hath taken away from us 
Our Queen Elizabeth. 



He might have taken other folk, 

That better might have been mist, 
And let our gratious Queen alone, 

That lov'd not a Popish Priest. 
She rul'd this Land alone of her self, 

And was beholding to no man. 
She bare the waight of all affaires, 

And yet she was but a woman. 

A woman said I ? nay that is more 

Nor any man can tell, 
So chaste she was, so pure she was, 

That no man knew it well. 



For 



Songs and Sonnets. 69 

For whilst that she liv'd till cruel death 

Exposed her to all. 
Wherefore I say lament, lament, 

Lament both great and small. 

She never did any wicked thing, 

Might make her conscience prick her, 
And scorn'd for to submit her self to him 

That calls himself Christ's Vicker : 
But rather chose couragiously 

To fight under Christ's Banner, 
Gainst Turk and Pope, I and King of Spain, 

And all that durst withstand her. 

She was as Chaste and Beautifull, 

And Faire as ere was any ; 
And had from forain Countreys sent 

Her Suters very many. 
Though Mounsieur came himself from France, 

A purpose for to woe her, 
Yet still she liv'd and dy*d a Maid, 

Doe what they could unto her. 

And if that I had Argus eyes, 

They were too few to weep, 
For our sweet Queen Elizabeth, 

Who now doth lye asleep : 
Asleep I say she now doth lye, 

Untill the day of Doome : 
But then shall awake unto the disgrace 

Of the proud Pope of Rome. 

F3 



yo Choice Drollery, 



A Ballad on King James ; lo the tune of 

When Arthur first in Court began. 

WHen James in Scotland first began, 
And there was crowned King, 
He was not much more than a span, 
All in his clouts swadling. 

But when he waxed into yeares, 

And grew to be somewhat tall, 
And told his Lords, a Parliament 

He purposed to call. 

That's over-much [,] quoth Douglas though, 

For thee to doe [,] I feare, 
For I am Lord Protector yet, 

And will be one halfe yeare. 

It pleaseth me well, quoth the King, 

What thou hast said to me, 
But since thou standest on such tearmes, 

He prove as strict to thee. 

And well he rul'd and well he curb'd 

Both Douglas and the rest ; 
Till Heaven with better Fortune and Power, 



Had him to England blest. 



Then 



Songs and Sonnets. 7 1 

Then into England straight he came 

As fast as he was able, 
Where he made many a Carpet Knight, 

Though none of the Round Table. 

And when he entered Barwicke Town, 

Where all in peace he found : 
But when that roaring Megge went off, 

His Grace was like to swound. 

Then up to London straight he came, 

Where he made no long stay, 
But soon returned back again, 

To meet his Queen by th' way. 

And when they met, such tilting was, 

The like was never seen ; 
The Lords at each others did run, 

And neer a tilt between. 

Their Horses backs were under them, 

And that was no great wonder, 
The wonder was to see them run, 

And break no Staves in sunder. 

They ran full swift and coucht their Speares, 
O ho quoth the Ladies then, 

They 
F4 



72 Choice Drollery \ 

They run for shew, quoth the people though, 
And not to hurt the men. 

They smote full hard at Barriers too, 
You might have heard the sound, 

As far as any man can goe, 

When both his legges are bound. 



Upon the death of a Chandler. 

THe Chandler grew neer his end, 
Pale Death would not stand his friend ; 
But tooke it in foul snuff, 
As having tarryed long enough : 
Yet left this not to be forgotten, 
Death and the Chandler could not Cotton. 

Farre 



Songs and Sonnets. 



7-3 




FArre in the Forrest oiArden, 
There dwelt a Knight hight Cassimen, 
As bold as Isenbras : 
Fell he was and eager bent 
In battaile and in Turnament, 
As was the good Sr. Topas. 

2. 
He had (as Antique stories tell) 
A daughter cleped Dowsabell, 

A Maiden faire and free, 
Who, cause she was her fathers heire, 
Full well she was y-tought the leire 

Of mickle courtesie. 



The Silke well could she twist and twine, 
And make the fine Marchpine, 

And with the needle work. 
And she could help the Priest to say 
His Mattins on a Holy-day, 

And sing a Psalme in Kirk. 



Her 



74 Choice Drollery, 

4- 
Her Frocke was of the frolique Green, 
(Mought well become a Mayden Queen) 

Which seemely was to see : 
Her Hood to it was neat and fine, 
In colour like the Columbine, 

y-wrought full featuously. 

5- 
This Maiden in a morne betime, 
Went forth when May was in her prime, 

To get sweet Scettuall, 
The Honysuckle, the Horelock, 
The Lilly, and the Ladies-Smock, 

To dight her summer Hall. 

6. 

And as she romed here, and there, 
Y-picking of the bloomed brier, 

She chanced to espie 
A Shepheard sitting on a bank, 
Like Chanticleere — he crowed crank, 

And piped with merry glee. 

7- 
He leerd his Sheep as he him list, 
When he would whistle in his fist, 
To feed about him round, 

Whilst 



Songs and Sonnets. 75 

Whilst he full many a Caroll sung, 
That all the fields, and meadowes rung, 
And made the woods resound. 

8. 
In favour this same Shepheard Swaine 
Was like the Bedlam Tamerlaine, 

That kept proud Kings in awe. 
But meek he was as meek mought be, 
Yea like the gentle Abell, he 

Whom his lewd brother slew. 

9- 

This Shepheard ware a freeze-gray Cloake, 
The which was of the finest locke, 

That could be cut with Sheere : 
His Aule and Lingell in a Thong, 
His Tar-box by a broad belt hung, 

His Cap of Minivere. 
io. 

His Mittens were of Bausons skin, 
His Cockers were of Cordowin, 

His Breech of country blew : 
All curie, and crisped were his Locks, 
His brow more white then Albion Rocks : 

So like a Lover true. 

And 



j 6 Choice Drollery, 

ii. 

And piping he did spend the day, 
As merry as a Popinjay, 

Which lik'd faire Dowsabell, 
That wod she ought, or wod she nought, 
The Shepheard would not from her thought, 

In love she longing fell : 



With that she tucked up her Frock, 
(White as the Lilly was her Smock,) 

And drew the Shepheard nigh, 
But then the Shepheard pip'd a good, 
That all his Sheep forsook their food, 

To heare his melody. 

13- 

Thy Sheep (quoth she) cannot be lean, 
That have so faire a Shepheard Swain, 

That can his Pipe so well : 
I but (quoth he) the Shepheard may, 
If Piping thus he pine away, 

For love of Dowsabell. 

14. 

Of love (fond boy) take thou no keep, 

Look well (quoth she) unto thy Sheep ; 

Lest they should chance to stray. 

So 



Songs and Sonnets. 77 

So had I done (quoth he) full well, 
Had I not seen faire Dowsabell, 
Come forth to gather May. 

15. 

I cannot stay (quoth she) till night, 
And leave my Summer Hall undight, 

And all for love of men. 
Yet are you, quoth he, too unkind, 
If in your heart you cannot find, 

To love us now and then. 

16. 
And I will be to thee as kind, 
As Collin was to Rosalinde, 

Of courtesie the flower. 
And I will be as true (quoth she) 
As ever Lover yet mought be, 

Unto her Paramour. 

With that the Maiden bent her knee, 
Down by the Shepheard kneeled she, 

And sweetly she him kist. 
But then the Shepheard whoop'd for joy, 
(Quoth he) was never Shepheards boy, 

That ever was so blist. 

Upon 



78 Choice Drollery, 




Upon the Scots being beaten 
at Muscleborough field. 

ON the twelfth day of December, 
In the fourth year of King Edwards reign[,] 
Two mighty Hosts (as I remember) 

At Muscleborough did pitch on a Plain. 
For a down, down, deny deny down, Hey down a, 
Down, down, down a down deny. 

All night our English men they lodged there, 
So did the Scots both stout and stubborn, 

But well-away was all their cheere, 
For we have served them in their own turn. 
For a downe, &c.| 

All night they carded for our English mens Coats, 
(They fished before their Nets were spun) 

A 



Songs and Sonnets. 79 

A white for Six-pence, a red for two Groats ; 

Wisdome would have stayd till they had been won. 
For a down, &c. 

On the tewelfth day all in the morn, 
They made a fere as if they would fight ; 

But many a proud Scot that day was down born, 
And many a rank Coward was put to his flight. 
For a down, &c. 

And the Lord Huntley, we hadden him there, 
With him he brought ten thousand men : 

But God be thanked, we gave him such a Banquet, 
He carryed but few of them home agen. 
For a down, &c. 

For when he heard our great Guns crack, 

Then did his heart fall untill his hose, 
He threw down his Weapons, he turned his back, 

He ran so fast that he fell on his nose. 
For a down, &c. 

We beat them back till Edenbrough, 
( There's men alive can witnesse this ) 

But 



8o 



Choice Drollery, 



But when we lookt our English men through, 
Two hundred good fellowes we did not misse. 
For a down, &c. 

Now God preserve Edward our King, 
With his two Nuncles and Nobles all, 

And send us Heaven at our ending : 
For we have given Scots a lusty fall. 

For a down, down, derry derry down, Hey, 

Down a down down, down a down derry. 



Lipps and Eyes. 

IN Celia a question did arise, 
Which were more beautifull her Lippes or Eyes. 
We, said the Eyes, send forth those pointed darts, 
Which pierce the hardest Adamantine hearts. 
From us, (reply'd the Lipps) proceed the blisses 
Which Lovers reape by kind words and sweet kisses. 
Then wept the Eyes, and from their Springs did powre 
Of liquid Orientall Pearle a showre : 
Whereat the Lippes mov'd with delight and pleasure, 
Through a sweet smile unlockt their pearly Treasure : 
And bad Love judge, whether did adde more grace, 
Weeping or smiling Pearles in Celids face. 

On 



Songs and Sonnets. Si 




On black Eyes. 

BLack Eyes ; in your dark Orbs do lye, 
My ill or happy destiny, 
If with cleer looks you me behold, 
You give me Mines and Mounts of Gold ; 
If you dart forth disdainfull rayes, 
To your own dy, you turn my dayes. 

Black Eyes, in your dark Orbes by changes dwell. 
My bane or blisse, my Paradise or Hell. 

That Lamp which all the Starres doth blind, 
Yeelds to your lustre in some kind, 
Though you do weare, to make you bright, 
No other dresse but that of night : 
He glitters only in the day. 
You in the dark your Beames display. 
Black Eyes, &c 

The cunning Theif that lurkes for prize, 
At some dark corner watching lyes ; 
So that heart-robbing God doth stand 
In the dark Lobbies, shaft in hand, 

g To 



82 



Choice Drollery, 



To rifle me of what I hold 
More pretious farre then Indian Gold. 
Black Eyes, &c. 

Oh powerful Negromantick Eyes, 
Who in your circles strictly pries, 
Will find that Cupid with his dart, 
In you doth practice the blacke Art : 
And by th' Inchantment I'me possest, 
Tryes his conclusion in my brest. 
Black Eyes, &c. 

Look on me though in frowning wise, 

Some kind of frowns become black eyes, 

As pointed Diamonds being set, 

Cast greater lustre out of Jet. 

Those pieces we esteem most rare, 

Which in night shadowes postur'd are. 

Darknesse in Churches congregates the sight, 

Devotion strayes in glaring light. 

Black Eyes, in your dark Orbs by changes dwell, 
My bane, or blisse, my Paradise or Hell. 



CRV- 



Songs and Sonnets. 



83 







CRVELTY. 

WE read of Kings, and Gods that kindly took 
A Pitcher fffl'd with Water from the Brook. 
But I have dayly tendred without thanks, 
Rivers of tears that overflow their banks. 
A slaughtred Bull will appease angry Jove, 
A Horse the Sun, a Lamb the God of Love. 
But she disdains the spotlesse sacrifice 
Of a pure heart that at her Altar lyes : 
Vesta [i]'s not displeas'd if her chaste Urn 
Doe with repaired fuell ever burn ; 
But my Saint frowns, though to her honoured name 
I consecrate a never dying flame : 
Th' Assyrian King did none i th' furnace throw, 
But those that to his Image did not bow : 
With bended knees I dayly worship her, 
Yet she consumes her own Idolater. 
Of such a Goddesse no times leave record, 
That burnt the Temple where she was ador'd. 



g 2 



Choice Drollery y 




A Sonnet. 

WHat ill luck had I, silly Maid that I am, 
To be ty'd to a lasting vow ; 
Or ere to be laid by the side of a man, 

That woo'd, and cannot tell how ; 
Down didle down, down didle me. 
Oh that I had a Clown that he might down diddle 

me, 
With a courage to take mine down. 

What punishment is that man worthy to have, 

That thus will presume to wedde, 
He deserves to be layd alive in his grave, 

That woo'd and cannot in bed ; 
Down didle down [,] down didle me. (me, 

Oh that I had a Lad that he might down didle 

For I feare I shall run mad. 



The 



Songs and Sonnets. 85 

W W W O W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W V 

7!fe Doctors Touchstone. 

I Never did hold, all that glisters is Gold, 
Unless by the Touch it be try'd ; 
Nor ever could find, that it was a true signe, 

To judge a man by the outside. 
A poor flash of wit, for a time may be fit 

To wrangle a question in Schools. 
Good dressing, fine cloathes, with other fine shews, 
May serve to make painted fools. 

That man will beguile, in your face that will smile, 

And court you with Cap and with knee : 
And while you're in health, or swimming in wealth, 

Will vow that your Servant hee'l be. 
That man He commend, and would have to my friend 

If I could tell where to choose him, 
That wil help me at need, and stand me in stead, 

When I have occasion to use him. 

I doe not him fear, that wil swagger & sweare, 

And draw upon every cross word, 
And forthwith again if you be rough & plain, 

Be contented to put up his sword. 

G 3 Him 



86 Choice Drollery, 



Him valiant I deem, that patient can seem 

And fights not in every place, 
But on good occasion, without seeking evasion [,] 

Durst look his proud Foe in the face. 

That Physician shal pass that is all for his glass 

And no other sign can scan, 
Who to practice did hop, from 'Apothecaries' shop, 

Or some old Physitians man. 
He Physick shal give to me whilst I live, 

That hath more strings to his Bow, 
Experience and learning, with due deserving, 

And will talk on no more then he know. 

That Lawyer I hate, that wil wrangle & prate, 

In a matter not worth the hearing: 
And if fees do not come, can be silent & dumb, 

Though the cause deserves but the clearing. 
That Lawyers for me, that's not all for his fee, 

But will do his utmost endeavour 
To stand for the right, and tug against might, 

And lift the truth as with a Leaver. 

The Shark I do scorn, that's only well born, 

And brags of his antient house, 
Yet his birth cannot fit, with money nor wit, 

But feeds on his friends like a Louse, 
That man I more prize, that by vertue doth rise 

Unto some worthy degree, 

. That 






Songs and Sonnets. 87 

That by breeding hath got, what by birth he had not, 
A carriage that's noble and free. 

I care not for him, that in riches doth swimme, 

And flants it in every fashion, 
That brags of his Grounds and prates of his Hounds. 

And his businesse is all recreation. 
For him I will stand, that hath wit with his Land, 

And will sweat for his Countreys good, 
That will stick to the Lawes, and in a good cause 

Will adventure to spend his heart-blood. 

That man I despise, that thinks himself wise, 

Because he can talk at Table, 
And at a rich feast break forth a poor jest, 

To the laughter of others more able. 
No, he hath more wit, that silent can sit, 

Yet knowes well enough how to do it, 
That speaks with reason, & laughs in due seaso[n,] 

And when he is mov'd unto it 

I care not a fly, for a house that's built high, 

And yeelds not a cup of good beer, 
Where scraps you may find, while Venison's in kind 

For a week or two in a yeare. 
He a better house keeps, that every night sleeps 

Under a Covert of thatch, 
Where's good Beef from the Stall, and a fire in the Hall, 

Where you need not to scramble nor snatch. 

G 4 Then 



88 Choice Drollery, 

Then lend me your Touch, for dissembling there's 

He try them before I do trust. (much, 

For a base needy Slave, in shew may be brave, 

And a sliding Companion seem just. 
The man that's down right, in heart & in sight, 

Whose life and whose looks doth agree, 
That speaks what he thinks, and sleeps when he winks, 

O that's the companion for me. 



A copy of Verses of a mon\e\y 
Marriage. 

i. 

NO Gypsie nor no Blackamore, 
No Bloomesbery, nor Turnbald whore, 
Can halfe so black, so foule appeare, 
As she I chose to be my Deare. 
She's wrinkled, old, she's dry, she's tough, 
Yet money makes her faire enough. 

2. 

Nature's hand shaking did dispose, 
Her cheeks faire red unto her nose, 
Which shined like that wanton light, 
Misguideth wanderers in the night. 
Yet for all this I do not care, 
Though she be foul, her money's faire. 

Her 



Songs and Sonnets. 89 

3- 
Her tangled Locks do show to sight, 
Like Horses manes, whom haggs affright. 
Her Bosome through her vaile of Lawne, 
Shews more like Pork, her Neck like Brawn. 
Yet for all this I do not care, 
Though she be foul, her money's faire. 

4. 

Her teeth, to boast the Barbers fame, 

Hang all up in his wooden frame. 

Her lips are hairy, like the skin 

Upon her browes, as lank as thin. 

Yet for all this I do not care, 
Though she be foul, her money's faire. 

5- 
Those that her company do keep, 
Are rough hoarse coughs, to break my sleep. 
The Palsie, Gout, and Plurisie, 
And Issue in her legge and thigh. 

Yet me it grieves not, who am sure 

That Gold can all diseases cure. 
6. 
Then young men do not jeere my lot, 
That beauty left, and money got : 
For I have all things having Gold, 
And beauty too, since beautie's sold. 

For Gold by day shall please my sight, 

When all her faults lye hid at night. 

The 



90 



Choice Drollery, 




The baseness of Whores. 

TRust no more, a wanton Whore, 
If thou lov'st health and freedom, 
They are so base in every place, 

It's pity that bread should feed 'um. 
All their sence is impudence, 

Which some call good conditions. 
Stink they do, above ground too, 
Of Chirurgions and Physitians. 

If you are nice, they have their spice, 

On which they'le chew to flout you, 
And if you not discern the plot, 

You have no Nose about you. 
Furthermore, they have in store, 

For which I deadly hate 'um, 
Perfum'd geare, to stuffe each eare, 

And for their cheeks Pomatum. 

Liquorish Sluts, they feast their guts, 

At Chuffs cost, like Princes, 
Amber Plumes, and Mackarumes, 

And costly candy'd Quinces. 
Potato plump, supports the Rump, 

Eringo strengthens Nature. 
Viper Wine, so heats the chine, 

They'le gender with a Satyr. Names 



Songs and Sonnets. 91 

Names they own were never known 

Throughout their generation, 
Noblemen are kind to them, 

At least by approbation : 
Many dote on one gay Coat, 

But mark what there is stampt on 't, 
A stone Horse wild, with toole defiPd, 

Two Goats, a Lyon rampant. 

Truth to say, Paint and Array, 

Makes them so highly prized. 
Yet not one well, often can tell, 

If ever they were baptized. 
And if not, then tis a blot 

Past cure of Spunge or Laver : 
And we may sans question say 

The Divel was their God-father. 

Now to leave them, he receive them, 

Whom they most confide in, 
Whom that is, aske Tib or Sis, 

Or any whom next you ride in. 
If in sooth, she speaks the truth, 

She sayes excuse I pray you, 
The beast you ride, where I confide, 

Will in due time convey you. 



92 



Choice Drollery, 




A Lover disclosing his love to 
his Mistris. 

LEt not sweet St, let not these eyes offend you, 
Nor yet the message, that these lines impart, 
The message my unfeined love doth send you, 
Love that your self hath planted in my heart. 

For being charm'd by the bewitching art 

Of those inveigling graces that attend you : 

Love's holy fire kindled hath in part 

These never-dying flames, my breast doth send you. 

Now if my lines offend, let love be blam'd, 
And if my love displease, accuse my eyes, 
And if mine eyes sin, their sins cause only lyes 
On your bright eyes, that hath my heart inflam'd. 

Since eyes [,] love, lines erre, then by your direction, 
Excuse my eyes, my lines, and my affection. 



The 



Songs and Sonnets. 



93 




The contented Prisoner his 
praise of Sack. 

HOw nappy's that Prisoner 
That conquers his fates, 
With silence, and ne're 

On bad fortune complaines, 
But carelessely playes 

With his Keyes on the Grates, 
And makes a sweet consort 

With them and his chayns. 
He drowns care with Sack, 

When his thoughts are opprest, 
And makes his heart float, 

Like a Cork in his Breast. 



The- 



94 Choice Drollery ', 

77z£ Chorus. 

Then, 
Since we are all slaves. 

That Islanders be, 
And our Land's a large prison, 

Inclos'd with the Sea : 

Wee'l drink up the Ocean, 
To set our selves free, 

For man is the World's Epitome. 

Let Pirates weare Purple, 

Deep dy'd in the blood 
Of those they have slain, 

The scepter to sway. 
If our conscience be cleere, 

And our title be good, 
With the rags we have on us, 

We are richer then they. 
We drink down at night, 

What we beg or can borrow, 
And sleep without plotting 

For more the next morrow. 

Since we, &c. 

Let the Usurer watch 

Ore his bags and his house, 

To 



Songs and So?inets. 95 

To keep that from Robbers, 

He hath rackt from his debtors, 
Each midnight cries Theeves, 

At the noyse of a mouse, 
Then see that his Trunks 

Be fast bound in their Fetters. 
When once he's grown rich enough 

For a State plot, 
Burl in an hower plunders 

What threescore years got. 

Since we, &c. 

Come Drawer fill each man 

A peck of Canary 
This Brimmer shall bid 

All our senses good-night. 
When old Aristotle 

Was frolick and merry, 
By the juice of the Grape, 

He turn'd Stagarite. 
Copernicus once 

In a drunken fit found, 
By the coruse [course] of his brains, 

That the world turn'd round. 



Since we, &c. 



Tis 



g6 Choice Drollery, 

Tis Sack makes our faces 

Like Comets to shine, 
And gives beauty beyond 

The Complexion mask, 
Diogenes fell so 

In love with this Wine, 
That when 'twas all out, 

He dwelt in the Cask. 
He liv'd by the s[c]ent 

Of his Wainscoated Room ; 
And dying desir'd 

The Tub for his Tombe. 



Since we, &c. 



[Of] 



Songs and Sonnets. 



97 




Of DESIRE. 

Fire, Fire ! 
O how I burn in my desire. 
For all the teares that I can strain 
Out of my empty love-sick brain, 
Cannot asswage my scorching pain. 
Come Humber, Trent, and silver Thames, 
The dread Ocean haste with all thy streames, 
And if thou can'st not quench my fire, 
Then drown both me and my Desire. 



Fire, Fire ! 
Oh there's no hell to my desire. 
See how the Rivers backward lye, 
The Ocean doth his tide deny, 
For fear my flames should drink them drye. 
Come heav'nly showers, come pouring down, 
You all that once the world did drown. 
You then sav'd some, and now save all, 
Which else would burn, and with me fall. 



Upon 



Choice Drollery, 



Upon kinde and true Love. 

Jr | ^Is not how witty, nor how free, 

X Nor yet how beautifull she be, 
But how much kinde and true to me. 
Freedome and Wit none can confine, 
And Beauty like the Sun doth shine, 
But kinde and true are onely mine. 

Let others with attention sit, 
To listen, and admire her wit, 
That is a rock where He not split. 
Let others dote upon her eyes, 
And burn their hearts for sacrifice, 
Beauty's a calm where danger lyes. 

But Kinde and True have been long try'd, 

And harbour where we may confide, [? An] 

And safely there at anchor ride. 

From change of winds there we are free, 

And need not fear Storme's tyrannie, 

Nor Pirat, though a Prince he be. 

Upon 



Songs and Sonnets. 99 

Upon his Constant Mis tr esse. 

SHe's not the fairest of her name, 
But yet she conquers more than all the race, 
For she hath other motives to inflame, 

Besides a lovely face. 
There's Wit and Constancy (the Eye. 

And Charms, that strike the soule more than 
Tis no easie lover knowes how to discover 
Such Divinity. 

And yet she is an easie book, 

Written in plain language for the meaner wit, 
A stately garb, and [yet] a gracious look, 

With all things justly fit. 
But age will undermine 
This glorious outside, that appeares so fine, 

When the common Lover 
Shrinks and gives her over, 
Then she's onely mine. 

To the Platonick that applies 

His clear addresses onely to the mind ; 
The body but a Temple signifies, 

Wherein the Saints inshrin'd, 
To him it is all one, 

Whether the walls be marble, or rough stone ; 
Nay, in holy places, which old time defaces, 

More devotion's shown. 

The 

[H2] 



ioo Choice Drollery, &c. 



The Ghost-Song. 

* r I Ms late and cold, stir up the fire, 

J. Sit close, and draw the table nigher, 
Be merry, and drink wine that's old, 
A hearty medicine 'gainst the cold ; 
Your bed['s] of wanton down the best, 
Where you may tumble to your rest : 
I could well wish you wenches too, 
But I am dead, and cannot do. 
Call for the best, the house will ring, 
Sack, White and Claret, let them bring, 
And drink apace, whilst breath you have, 
You'l find but cold drinking in the grave ; 
Partridge, Plover for your dinner, 
And a Capon for the sinner, 
You shall finde ready when you are up, 
And your horse shall have his sup. 
Welcome, welcome, shall flie round, 
And I shall smile, though under ground. 

You that delight in Trulls and Minions, 
Come buy my four ropes of St. Omers Onions. 

FINIS. 

Table 



101 



www w w Cu) w w w w w w w w w 'j y y a Q y & 

V^ V^ V^ <C^ ^ v^ v^ v^ v^ ^ v^ v^ v^ *c$ v^ vs^ v^ ^ v^ v^ vc^ s^ 

Table of First Lines 

To the Songs and Poems in 

Choice Drollery, 1656. 



good 



(NOW FIRST ADDED.) 

A Maiden of the Pure Society ... 
A story strange I will you tell . 
A Stranger coming to the town ... . 
And will this wicked world never prove 

As I went to Totnam 

Blacke eyes, in your dark orbs do lye 

Cloris, now thou art fled away . . . 

Come, my White-head, let our Muses 

Deare Love, let me this evening dye 

Down lay the Shepheards Swain . . . 

Drink boyes, drink boyes, drink and doe not spare 

Farre in the Forrest of Arden 

Fire ! Fire / O, how I burn 

Fuller of wish, than hope, methinks it is 

He that a Tinker, a Tinker, a Tinker will be 

Hide, oh hide those lovely Browes . . . 

How happy 1 s that Prisoner that conquers, &>c 

I keeep my horse, I keep my W 

/ love thee for thy mrled hair 

I never did hold, all that glisters is gold 
I tell you all, both great and small 



page. 
44 

3 1 
16 

40 

45 
81 

63 
10 

1 

65 

42 

73 
97 
62 

52 
53 
93 
60 

49 

85 

68 

Idol 



102 



TABLE OF FIRST LINES. 



Idol of our sex ! Envy of thine own ! 55 

If at this tifne I am derided 9 

In Celia a question did arise 80 

In Eighty-eight, ere I was born 38 

let not, sweet saint, let not these eyes offend you ... 92 

list, you, Nobles, and attend 20 

My Mother hath sold away her Cock 43 

Never was humane soule so overgrown 17 

No Gysie nor no Blackamore ^ 

Nor Love, nor Fate dare I accuse 4 

Oh fire, fire, fire, where ? $$ 

On the twelfth day of December 78 

One night the great Apollo, pleased with Ben ... 5 

Shall I think, because some clouds 15 

She's not the fairest of her name 99 

The Chandler grew neer his end 72 

There is not halfe so warme afire 61 

This day inlarges every narrow mind 48 

' Tis late and cold, stir up the fire 100 

' 'Tis not how witty ', nor how free 98 

Trust no more a wanton Wh 90 

Uds bodykins, Chill work no more 57 

We read of Kings, and Gods that kindly took ... 83 

What ill luck had I, silly maid that I am 84 

When first the magick of thine eye 8 

When James in Scotland first began 70 



AN 



AN 

ANTIDOTE 

AGAINST 

MELANCHOLY: 

Made up in PILLS. 

Compounded of Witty Ballads, Jovial 
Songs, and Merry Catches. 



These witty Poems though some time [they] 

may seem to halt on crutches, 
Yet they' I all merrily please you for your 

Charge, which not much is. 



Printed by Mer. Melancholicus, to be sold in London 

and Westminster, 1661. 
[Aprill, 18.] 



io5 



EDITORIAL 

INTRODUCTION 

TO THE 

ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY, 

1661. 

Adalmar. — " An Antidote ! 

Restore him whom thy poisons have laid low." .... 
Isbrand. — " A very good and thirsty melody ; 

What say you to it, my Court Poet ? 
Wolfram. — " Good melody ! When I am sick o' mornings, 

With a horn-spoon tinkling my porridge pot, 

'Tis a brave ballad." 

(T. L. Beddoes: Death's Jest Book, Acts iv. & v.J 



§ i. Reprint of an Antidote. 

WWWW^AVING found that sixty-five of our 
H| -_- -w- « previous pages, in the second volume 
Hi I — I Iff °^ tne D r °M er i es Reprint, were filled 
HI Kf w i tn songs and poems that also appear 

Ijlltflifltflif in the Antidote against Melancholy, 
1 66 1 ; and that all the remaining songs and poems of the 
Antidote (several being only obtainable therein) exceed 
not the compass of three additional sheets, or forty-eight 
pages, the Editor determined to include this valuable 

book 



106 INTRODUCTION TO 

book. Thus in our three volumes are given four 
entire works, to exemplify this particular class of 
literature, the Cavalier Drolleries of the Restoration. * 
To that portion of our present Appendix which is 
devoted to Notes to the Antidote against Melancholy, 
1 66 1, we refer the reader for the admirable brief In- 
troduction written by John Payne Collier, Esq. ; to 
whose handsome Reprint of the work we owe our first 
acquaintance with its pages. His knowledge of our 
old literature extends over nearly a century ; his op- 
portunities for inspecting private and public libraries 
have been peculiarly great ; and he has always been 
most generous in communicating his knowledge to 
other students, showing throughout a freedom from 
jealousy and exclusiveness reminding us of the genial 
Sir Walter Scott. He states : — " We have never seen 
a copy of an ' Antidote against Melancholy ' that was 
not either imperfect, or in some places illegible from 
dirt and rough usage, excepting the one we have em- 
ployed : our single exemplar is as fresh as on the day 
it was issued from the press. There is an excellent 
and highly finished engraving on the title-page, of 
gentlemen and boors carousing ; but as the repetition 



* Prefixed to " The Ex-Ale-tation of Ale" is given a Table of 
Contents (on page 112), enlarged from the one in the original 
" Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills, 1661, by refer- 
ences to such pages of " Merry Drollery, Compleat, 1670, 1691, 
as bear songs or poems in common with the " Antidote." 

of 



ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY. 107 

of it for our purpose would cost more than double 
every other expense attending our reprint, we have 
necessarily omitted it. The same plate was after- 
wards used for one of Brathwayte's pieces ; and we 
have seen a much worn impression of it on a Drollery 
near the end of the seventeenth century. It does not 
at all add to our knowledge of the subject of our 
reprint. J. P. C." 

Nevertheless, the copper-plate illustration is so 
good, and connects so well with the Bacchanalian and 
sportive character of the " Antidote against Melan- 
choly? and other Drolleries, that the present Editor 
not unwillingly takes up the graver to reproduce this 
frontispiece for the adornment of the volume and the 
service of subscribers. Our own Reprint and our 
engraving are made from the perfect specimen con- 
tained in the Thomason Collection, and dated 1661 
(with " Aprill 18" in MS. ; see p. 161). We make a rule 
always to go to the fountain-head for our draughts, 
howsoever long and steep may be the ascent. Flowers 
and rare fossils reward us as we clamber up, and in 
good time other students learn to trust us, as being 
pains-taking and conscientiously exact. The first 
duty of one who aspires to be honoured as the Editor 
of early literature is to faithfully reproduce his text, 
unmutilated and undisguised. To amend it, and 
elucidate it, so far as lies in his power, can be done 

befitingly 



108 INTRODUCTION TO 

befitingly in his notes and comments, while he gives 
his readers a representation of the original, so nearly 
in facsimile as is compatible with additional beauty of 
typography. Throughout our labours we have held 
this principle steadily in view; and, whatever nobler 
work we may hereafter attempt, the same determi- 
nation must guide us. There may be debate as to 
our wisdom in reproducing some questionable facetice, 
but there shall be none regarding our fidelity to the 
original text. 

§ II. Ingredients of an "Antidote." 
A pleasant book it appeared to Cavaliers and all 
who were not quite strait-laced. It is almost unob- 
jectionable, except for a few ugly words, and bears 
comparison honourably with "Merry Drollery" or 
" Wit and Drollery" both of the same date, 1661. 
Unlike the former, it is almost uninfected with political 
rancour or impurity. It is a jovial book, that roysters 
and revellers loved to sing their Catches from ; nay, 
if some laughing nymphs did not drop their eyes 
over its pages we are no conjurors. A vulgar phrase 
or two did not frighten them. Lucy Hutchinson her- 
self, the Colonel's Puritan wife, fires many a volley of 
coarse epithets without blushing ; and, indeed, the 
Saintly Crew occasionally indulged in foul language as 
freely as the Malignants, though it was condoned as 

being theologic zeal and controversial phraseology. 

In 



ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY. IO9 

In " The Ex-Ale-tation of Ale " we forgive the 
verbosity, for the sake of one verse on the noted 
Ballad-writer (see note in Appendix) : — 

" For ballads Elderton never had peer ; 

How went his wit in them, with how merry a gale, 
And with all the sails up, had he been at the Cup, 
And washed his beard with a. pot of good ale." 

We find the character of the songs to be eminently 
festive : almost every one could be chanted over a 
cup of burnt Sack, and there was not entire forget- 
fulness of eating : witness " The Cold Chyne," on page 
55 (our p. 148). The Love-making is seldom visible. 
Such glimpses as we gain of Puritans (Bishop Corbet's 
Hot-headed Zealot, Cleveland's " Rotundos rot,") are 
only suggestive of playful ridicule. The Sectaries, 
being no longer dangerous, are here laughed at, not 
calumniated. The odd jumble of nations brought to- 
gether in those disturbed times is seen in the crowd of 
lovers around the " blith Lass of Falkland town" (p. 
133) who is constant in her love of a Scottish blue 
bonnet : — " If 'ever I have a man, blew- Cap for me /" 
But, sitting at ease once more, not hunted into bye- 
ways or exile, and with enough of ready cash to 
wipe off tavern scores, or pay for braver garments 
than were lately flapping in the wind, the Cavaliers 
recall the exploits of their patron-saint, " St. George 
for England," the gay wedding of Lord Broghill, as 

described 



110 INTRODUCTION, ETC 

described by Sir John Suckling in 1641, the still 
noisier marriage of Arthur o' Bradley, or that imagi- 
nary banquet afforded to the Devil, by Ben Jonson's 
Cook Lorrell, in the Peak of Derbyshire. Early 
contrasts, drawn by their own grandsires, between the 
Old Courtier of Queen Elizabeth and the New Cour- 
tier of King James, are welcomed to remembrance. 
They forgive " Old Noll," while ridiculing his image 
as " The Brewer," and they repeat the earlier Ulysses 
song of the " Blacksmith," by Dr. James Smith, if only 
for its chorus, "Which no body can deny." The 
grave solemnity wherewith Dr. Wilde's " Combat of 
Cocks" was told ; the light-hearted buffoonery of 
" Sir Eglamore's Fight with the Dragon f the splut- 
tering grimaces of Ben Jonson's " Welchman's praise 
of Wales f and the sustained humour as well as en- 
thusiasm of Dr. Henry Edwards's " On the Vertue of 
Sack" (" Fetch me Ben Jonson's scull," &c), are all 
crowned by the musical outburst of " The Green 
Gown :"— 

" Pan leave piping, the Gods have done feasting, 
There's never a goddess a hunting to-day," &c. 

(see Appendix to Westminster Drollery, p. liv.) Our 
readers may thus additionally enjoy a full-flavoured 
bumper of the " Antidote against Melancholy." 
August, 1875. J. W. E. 

To 



To the Reader. IU 

T Here's no Purge 'gainst Melancholly, 
But with Bacchus to be jolly : 
All else are but Dreggs of Folly. 

Paracelsus wanted skill 

When he sought to cure that 111 : 

No Pectorals like the Poets quill. 

Here are Pills of every sort, 
For the Country, City, Court, 
Compounded and made up of sport. 

If 'gainst Sleep and Fumes impure, 
Thou, thy Senses would'st secure ; 
Take this, Coffee's not half so sure. 

Want'st thou Stomack to thy Meat, 
And would'st fain restore the heat, 
This does it more than Choccolet. 

Cures the Spleene[,] Revives the blood [,] 
Puts thee in a Merry Mood : 
Who can deny such Physick good ? 

Nothing like to Harmeles Mirth, 
'Tis a Cordiall On earth 
That gives Society a Birth. 

Then be wise, and buy, not borrow, 
Keep an Ounce still for to Morrow, 
Better than a pound of Sorrow. 

N. D. 



1 1 2 Ballads, Songs, and Catches ifi this Book. 



Original: Our 
page, vols, page 



16 

20 
21 

25 
26 
29 
3i 
33 
35 
37 
39 

40 
44 
47 
49 



111. 113 

ii. 214 

.. 225 

iii. 125 

ii. 312 
i.Ap.54 
ii. 200 

..:• 2 57 
iii. 129 

■■ 133 

•• 135 

ii. 143 

.. 234 

139 
218 



111. 
ii. 



The Exaltation of a Pot of Good Ale, . 1 
The Song of Cook-Laivrel, by Ben Johnson 9 
The Ballad of The Blacksmith, . .11 
The Ballad of the Old Courtier and the Neiv 14 
The Ballad of the Wedding of Arthur of 

Bradley, 

The Ballad of the Green Goivn, 

The Ballad of the Gelding of the Devil, . 

The Ballad of Sir Eglamore, . 

The Ballad of St. George for England, . 

The Ballad of Blew Cap for me, 

The Ballad of the Several Caps, 

The Ballad of the Noses, 

The Song of the Hot-headed Zealot, 

The Song of the Schismatick Rotundos, . 

A Glee in praise of Wine \Let souldiers\ 

Sir John Sucklin's Ballad of the Ld. L. 

Wedding. ..... 

The Combat of Cocks, 
The Welchman' 's prayse of Wales, . 
The Cavaleer's Complaint [and Answer], 
Three several Songs in praise of Sack 

[: Old Poets Hipocrin, &c. 
Hang the Presbyter' s Gill,. . 
' Tis Wine that inspires, 
A Glee to the Vicar, ... 

"On a Cold Chyne of Beef, 
A Song of Cupid Scorned, 
On the Vertue of Sack, by Dr. Hen. Ed 

wards 

The Medly of Nations, to several tunes 

The Ballad of the Brewer, 

A Collection of 40 [34] more Merry 

Catches and Songs. . . 65-76 iii. 149 

[Of these 34, ten are given in Merry 
Drollery, Complete, on pages 296, 304, 
308, 232, 337, 300, 280, 318, 348, and 341. 
The others are added in this volume . iii. 52 



111. 



111. 



52 

53 •• 

54 •• 
W.D. 

55 
56 

57 
59 
62 



101 

242 

141 

52 

143 
144 

145 
Int. 
146 
147 

293' 
127 

221 



"3 

#ill0 to #utge 09elanct)ollp. 

The Ex-Ale-tation of ALE. [p. i.] 

NOt drunken, nor sober, but neighbour to both, 
I met with a friend in Ales-bury Vale ; 
He saw by my Face, that I was in the Case 
To speak no great harm of a Pot of good Ale. 

Then did he me greet, and said, since we meet 
(And he put me in mind of the name of the Dale) 

For Ales-burys sake some pains I would take, 
And not bury the praise of a Pot of good Ale. 

The more to procure me, then he did adjure me 
If the Ale I drank last were nappy and stale, 

To do it its right, and stir up my sprite, 
And fall to commend &pot [of good ale]. [passim.'] 

Quoth I, To commend it I dare not begin, 
Lest therein my Credit might happen to fail ; 

For, many men now do count it a sin, 
But once to look toward a pot of good ale. 

Yet I care not a pin, For I see no such sin, 
Nor any thing else my courage to quail : 

For, this we do find, that take it in kind, 
Much vertue there is in a pot of good ale. 

And 



1 14 Antidote against Melancholy, 

And I mean not to taste, though thereby much grac't, 
Nor the Merry-go-down without pull or hale, 

Perfuming the throat, when the stomack's afloat, 
With the Fragrant sweet scent of a pot of good ale. 

Nor yet the delight that comes to the Sight 
To see how it flowers and mantles in graile, 

As green as a Leeke, with a smile in the cheek, 
The true Orient colour of a pot of good ale. 

But I mean the Mind, and the good it doth find, 
Not onely the Body so feeble and fraile ; 

For, Body and Soul may blesse the black bowle, 
Since both are beholden to a Pot of good ale. 

For, when heavinesse the mind doth oppresse, 
And sorrow and grief the heart do assaile, 

No remedy quicker than to take off your Liquor, 
And to wash away cares with a pot of good ale. 

The Widow that buried her Husband of late, 
Will soon have forgotten to weep and to waile, 

And think every day twain, till she marry again, 
If she read the contents of a pot of good ale. 

It is like a belly-blast to a cold heart, 

And warms and engenders the spirits vitale: 

To keep them from domage all sp'rits owe their hom- 
To the Sp'rite of the buttery, a, pot of good ale. [age 

And 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 115 

And down to the legs the vertue doth go, 
And to a bad Foot-man is as good as a saile : 

When it fill the Veins, and makes light the Brains, 
No Lackey so nimble as a pot of good ale. 

The naked complains not for want of a coat, 

Nor on the cold weather will once turn his taile ; 

All the way as he goes, he cuts the wind with his Nose, 
If he be but well wrapt in a pot of good ale. 

The hungry man takes no thought for his meat, 
Though his stomack would brook a ten-penny naile; 

He quite forgets hunger, thinks on it no longer, 
If he touch but the sparks of a pot of good ale. 

The Poor man will praise it, so hath he good cause, 
That all the year eats neither Partridge nor Quaile, 

But sets up his rest, and makes up his Feast, 

With a crust of brown bread, and a pot of good ale. 

The Shepherd, the Sower, the Thresher, the Mower, 
The one with his Scythe, the other with his Flaile, 

Take them out by the poll, on the peril of my soil, 
All will hold up their hands to a pot of good ale. 

The Black-Smith, whose bellows all Summer do blow, 
With the fire in his Face still, without e're a vaile, 

Though his throat be full dry, he will tell you no lye, 
But where you may be sure of a pot of good ale. 

Who 

H 2 



1 1 6 Antidote against Melancholy, 

Who ever denies it, the Pris'ners will prayse it, 
That beg at [the] Grate, and lye in the Goale, 

For, even in their fetters they thinke themselves better, 
May they get but a two-penny black pot of Ale. 

The begger, whose portion is alwayes his prayers, 
Not having a tatter to hang on his taile, 

Is rich in his rags, as the churle in his bags, 

If he once but shakes hands with a pot of good ale. 

It drives his poverty clean out of mind, 

Forgetting his brown bread, his wallet, and matte ; 

He walks in the house like a six-footed Louse, 
If he once be inricht with a pot of good ale. 

And he that doth dig in the ditches all day, 
And wearies himself quite at the plough-taile, 

Will speak no less things than of Queens and of Kings, 
If he touch but the top of a pot of 'good ale. 

'Tis like a Whetstone to a blunt wit, 

And makes a supply where Nature doth fail : 

The dullest wit soon will look quite through the Moon, 
If his temples be wet with a pot of good ale. 

Then Dick to his Dearling, full boldly dares speak, 
Though before (silly Fellow) his courage did quaile, 

He gives her the smouch, with his hand on his pouch, 
If he meet by the way with a, pot of good ale. 

And 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 117 

And it makes the Carter a Courtier straight-way ; 

With Rhetorical termes he will tell his tale ; 
With courtesies great store, and his Cap up before, 

Being school'd but a little with a pot of good ale. 

The Old mah, whose tongue wags faster than his teeth, 
(For old age by Nature doth drivel and drale) 

Will frig and will fling, like a Dog in a string, 
If he warm his cold blood with &pot of good ale. 

And the good Old Clarke, whose sight waxeth dark, 
And ever he thinks the Print is to[o] small, 

He will see every Letter, and say Service better, 
If he glaze but his eyes with %,pot of good ale. 

The cheekes and the fames to commend it have cause ; 

For where they were late but even wan and pale, 
They will get them a colour, no crimson is fuller, 

By the true die and tincture of a pot of good ale. 

Mark her Enemies, though they think themselves wise, 
How meager they look, with how low a waile, 

How their cheeks do fall, without sp'rits at all, 
That alien their minds from &pot of good ale. 

And now that the grains do work in my brains, 
Me thinks I were able to give by retaile 

Commodities store, a dozen and more, 

That flow to Mankind from a pot of good ale. 



The 






H3 



1 1 8 A ntidote against Melancholy, 

The Muses would muse any should it misuse : 

For it makes them to sing like a Nightingale, 

With a lofty trim note, having washed their throat 

With the Caballine Spring of a pot of good ale. 

[? Castalian] 

And the Musician of any condition, 

It will make him reach to the top of his Scale : 

It will clear his pipes, and moisten his lights, 
If he drink alternatim &pot of good ale. 

The Poet Divine, that cannot reach Wine, 

Because that his money doth many times faile, 

Will hit on the vein to make a good strain, 
If he be but inspired with &pot of good ale. 

For ballads Elderton never had Peer ; 

How went his wit in them, with how merry a Gale, 
And with all the Sails up, had he been at the Cup, 

And washed his beard with a pot of good ale. 

And the power of it showes, no whit less in Prose, 
It will file one's Phrase, and set forth his Tale : 

Fill him but a Bowie, it will make his Tongue troul, 
For flowing speech flows from &pot of good ale. 

And Master Philosopher, if he drink his part, 
Will not trifle his time in the huske or the shale, 

But go to the kernell by the depth of his Art, 
To be found in the bottom of a pot of good ale. 

Give 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 119 

Give a Scholar of Oxford a pot of Sixteen, 

And put him to prove that an Ape hath no talk. 

And sixteen times better his wit will be seen, 
If you fetch him from Botley apot of good ale. 

Thus it helps Speech and Wit : and it hurts not a whit, 
But rather doth further the Virtues Morale; 

Then think it not much if a little I touch 
The good moral parts of a pot of good ale. 

To the Church and Religion it is a good Friend, 
Or else our Fore-Fathers their wisedome did faile. 

That at every mile, next to the Church stile, 
Set a consecrate house to a pot of good ale. 

But now, as they say, Beer bears it away ; 

The more is the pity, if right might prevaile : 
For, with this same Beer, came up Heresie here, 

The old Catholicke drink is &pot of good ale. 

The Churches much ow[e], as we all do know, 
For when they be drooping and ready to fall, 

By a Whitson or Church-ale, up again they shall go, 
And owe their repairing to a pot of good ale. 

Truth will do it right, it brings Truth to light, 
And many bad matters it helps to reveal : 

For, they that will drink, will speak what they think : 
Tom tell-troth lies hid in a pot of good ale. 

It 

H 4 



120 Antidote against Melancholy, 

It is Justices Friend, she will it commend, 
For all is here served by measure and tale; 

Now, true-tale and good measure are Justices treasure, 
And much to the praise of a pot of good ale. 

And next I alledge, it is Fortitudes edge[,] 

For a very Cow-heard, that shrinks like a Snaile, 

Will swear and will swagger, and out goes his Dagger, 
If he be but arm'd with a pot of good ale. 

Yea, ale hath her Knights and Squires of Degree, 
That never wore Corslet, nor yet shirts of Maile, 

But have fought their fights all, twixt the pot and the wall, 
When once they were dub'd with &pot of good ale. 

And sure it will make a man suddenly wise, 
Er'e-while was scarce able to tell a right tale : 

It will open his jaw, he will tell you the Law, 
As make a right Bencher of a pot of good ale. 

Or he that will make a bargain to gain, 
In buying or setting his goods forth to sale, 

Must not plod in the mire, but sit by the fire, 
And seale up his Match with a pot of good ale. 

But for Soberness, needs must I confess, 
The matter goes hard ; and few do prevaile 

Not to go too deep, but temper to keep, 
Such is the Attractive of a pot of good ale. 

But 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 121 

But here's an amends, which will make all Friends, 
And ever doth tend to the best availe : 

If you take it too deep, it will make you but sleep ; 
So comes no great harm of a pot of good ale. 

If (reeling) they happen to fall to the ground, 

The fall is not great, they may hold by the Raile : 

If into the water, they cannot be drown'd, 
For that gift is given to a pot of good ale. 

If drinking about they chance to fall out, 

Fear not that Alarm, though flesh be but fraile ; 

It will prove but some blowes, or at most a bloody nose, 
And Friends again straight with a pot of good ale. 

And Physic will favour ale, as it is bound, 
And be against Beere both tooth and naile ; 

They send up and down, all over the town 
To get for their Patients &pot of good ale. 

Their Ale-berries, cawdles, and Possets each one, 
And Syllabubs made at the Milking-pale, 

Although they be many, Beere comes not in any, 
But all are composed with &pot of good ale. 

And in very deed the Hop's but a Weed, 

Brought o're against Law, and here set to sale : 

Would the Law were renew'd, and no more Beer brew'd, 
But all men betake them to a Pot of good ale. 

The 



1 22 A ntidote against Melancholy, 

The Law that will take it under his wing, 
For, at every Law-day, or Moot of the hale, 

One is sworn to serve our Soveraigne the King, 
In the ancient Office of a Conner of ale. 

There's never a Lord of Mannor or of a Town, 
By strand or by land, by hill or by dale, 

But thinks it a Franchise, and a FlowW of the Crown, 
To hold the Assize of &pot of good ale. 

And though there lie Writs from the Courts Paramount, 
To stay the proceedings of Courts Paravaile; 

Law favours it so, you may come, you may go, 
There lies no Prohibition to a pot of good ale. 

They talk much of State, both early and late, 

But if Gascoign and Spain their Wine should but faile, 

No remedy then, with us Englishmen, 

But the State it must stand by a pot of good ale. 

And they that sit by it are good men and quiet, 
No dangerous Plotters in the Common-weale 

Of Treason and Murder : For they never go further 
Than to call for, and pay for a pot of good ale. 

To the praise of Gambrivius that good Brittish King 
That devis'd for his Nation (by the Welshmen's tale) 

Seventeen hundred years before Christ did spring, 
The happy invention of a pot of good ale. 

The 



_'J 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 123 

The North they will praise it, and praise with passion, 
Where every River gives name to a Dale : 

There men are yet living that are of th' old fashion, 
No Nectar they know but a pot of good ale. 

The Picts and the Scots for ale were at lots, 
So high was the skill, and so kept under seale ; 

The Picts were undone, slain each mothers son, 
For not teaching the Scots to make Hether Bale. 

But hither or thither, it skils not much whether : 
For Drink must be had, men live not by Keale, 

Not by Havor-bannocks nor by Havor-jannocks, 
The thing the Scots live on is a pot of good ale. 

Now, if ye will say it, I will not denay it, 
That many a man it brings to his bale : 

Yet what fairer end can one wish to his Friend, 
Than to dye by the part oi&pot of good ale. 

Yet let not the innocent bear any blame, 

It is their own doings to break o're the pale : 

And neither the Malt, nor the good wife in fault, 
If any be potted with a pot of good ale. 

They tell whom it kills, but say not a word, 

How many a man liveth both sound and hale, -: 

Though he drink no Beer any day in the year, 
By the Radical humour of a pot of good ale. 

But 



124 Antidote against Melancholy, 

But to speak of Killing, that am I not willing, 
For that in a manner were but to raile : 

But Beer hath its name, 'cause it brings to the Biere, 
Therefore well-fare, say I, to zpot of good ale. 

Too many (I wis) with their deaths proved this, 
And, therefore (if ancient Records do not faile), 

He that first brew'd the Hop was rewarded with a rope, 
And found his Beer far more Utter than Ale. 

O Ale [!] ab alendo, the Liquor of Life, 
That I had but a mouth as big as a Whale! 

For mine is too little to touch the least tittle 
That belongs to the praise of a pot of good ale. 

Thus (I trow) some Vertues I have mark'd you out, 
And never a Vice in all this long traile, 

But that after the Pot there cometh the Shot, 
And that's th' onely blot of a pot of good ale. — 

With that my Friend said, that blot will I bear, 
r You have done very well, it is time to strike saile, 
Wee'l have six pots more, though I dye on the score, 
To make all this good of a Pot of good ALE. 



[Followed by Ben Jonson's Cook Lorrel, and by The Black- 
smith: for which see Merry Drollery., Complete, pp. 214-17, 
225-30.] 

An 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 125 

An Old Song of an Old Courtier [p. 14.] 
and a New. 

With an Old Song made by an Old Ancient pate, 
Of an Old worshipful Gentleman who had a 
great Estate; 
Who kept an old house at a bountiful rate, 

And an old Porter to relieve the Poore at his Gate, 
Like an old Courtier of the Queens. 

With and old Lady whose anger and [? one] good word 
asswages, 
Who every quarter payes her old Servants their wages, 
Who never knew what belongs to Coachmen, Footmen, 
& Pages, 
But kept twenty thrifty old Fellows, with blew-coats 
and badges, 

Like an old Courtier of the Queens. 

With an old Study fill'd full of Learned books, 

With an old Reverent Parson, you may judge him 

by his looks, 

With an old Buttery hatch worn quite off the old hooks, 

And an old Kitching, which maintains half a dozen 
old cooks ; 

Like an old Courtier of the Queens. 

With an old Hall hung round about with Guns, Pikes, 
and Bowes, 

With 



126 Antidote against Melancholy, 

With old swords & bucklers, which hath born[e] 
many shrew'd blows, (hose, 

And an old Frysadoe coat to cover his Worships trunk 
And a cup of old Sherry to comfort his Copper Nose ; 
Like an old Courtier of the Queens. 

With an old Fashion, when Christmas is come, 

To call in his Neighbours with Bag-pipe and Drum, 
And good chear enough to furnish every old Room, 
And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and a wise 
man dumb ; 

like an Old [Courtier of the Queens^ 

With an old Hunts-man, a Falkoner, and a Kennel of 
Hounds ; 
Which never Hunted, nor Hawked but in his own 
Grounds ; 
Who like an old wise man kept himself within his 
own bounds, 
And when he died gave every child a thousand old 
pounds ; 

like an Old [Courtier of the Queens.] 

But to his eldest Son his house and land he assign'd, 
Charging him in his Will to keep the same bountiful 
mind, 
To be good to his Servants, and to his Neighbours kind, 
But in th' ensuing Ditty you shall hear how he was 
enclin'd ; 

like a young Courtier of the Kings. 

[Part 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 127 

[Part Second.] 

Like a young Gallant newly come to his Land, 

That keeps a brace of Creatures at's own command, 
And takes up a thousand pounds upon's own Band, 
And lieth drunk in a new Tavern, till he can neither 
go nor stand ; 

like a young [Courtier of the Kings]. 

With a neat Lady that is fresh and fair, 

Who never knew what belonged to good house- 
keeping or care, 
But buyes several Fans to play with the wanton ayre, 
And seventeen or eighteen dressings of other 
womens haire ; 

like a young [Courtier of the Kings]. 

With a new Hall built where the old one stood, 

Wherein is burned neither coale nor wood, 
And a new Shuffel-board-table where never meat stood, 
Hung Round with Pictures, which doth the poor little 
good. 

like a young [ Courtier of the Kings]. 

With a new study stuff 't full of Pamphlets and playes, 
With a new Chaplin, that swears faster then he prayes, 
With a new Buttery hatch that opens once in four or 
five dayes, 

With 



\2 8 Antidote against Melancholy, 

With a new French-Cook to make Kickshawes and 
Tayes ; 

like a young Courtier of the Kings. 

With a new Fashion, when Christmasse is come, 

With a journey up to London we must be gone, 
And leave no body at home but our new Porter John, 
Who relieves the poor with a thump on the back 
with a stone; 

Like a young [Courtier of the Kings]. 

With a Gentleman- Vsher whose carriage is compleat, 
With a Footman, a Coachman, a Page to carry meat, 
With a waiting Gentlewoman, whose dressing is very 
neat, 
Who when the master hath dyn'd gives the servants 
litle meat ; 

Like a young \Courtier of the Kings]. 

With a new honour bought with his Fathers Old Gold, 
That many of his Fathers Old Manors hath sold, 

And this is the occasion that most men do hold, 

That good Hous[e]-keeping is now-a-dayes grown so 

cold; 

Like a young Courtier of the Kings. 



[Here 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 129 

[Here follow, Arthur of Bradley (see Merry Drollery, Compleat, 
p. 312) ; The Green Gown: "Pan leave piping,'' (see JVestm. 
Droll., Appendix, p. 54) ; Gelding- of the Devil : " Now listen a 
while, and I will you tell" (see Merry D., C, p. 200) ; Sir Egle 
More (ibid, p. 257) ; and St. George for England (ibid, p. 309). 
But, as the variations are great, in the last of these, it is here 
given from the Antidote ag. Mel., p. 26.] 



The Ballad of St. George for England, [p. 26.] 

WHy should we boast of Arthur and his Knights ? 
Knowpng] how many men have perform'd 
fights ; 
Or why should we speak of Sir Lancelot du Lake, 
Or Sir Trestram du Leon, that fought for the Lady's sake ; 
Read old storyes, and there you'l see 
How St. George, St. George, did make the Dragon flee : 
St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for 
Sing Hony soitt qui Mai y pense. (France, 

To speak of the Monarchy, it were two Long to tell ; 
And likewise of the Romans, how far they did excel, 
Hannibal and Scipio, they many a field did fight ; 
Orlando Furioso he was a valiant Knight ; 
Romulus and Rhemus were those that Rome did build, 
But St. George, St. George, the Dragon he hath kill'd ; 
St. George he was, &>c. 

Jephtha and Gidion they led their men to fight 
The Gibeonites and Amonites, they put them all to 
flight ; HercuVes 



130 Antidote against Melancholy, 

HercuTes Labour was in the Vale of Brass, 

And Sampson slew a thousand with the Jaw-bone of 

an Asse, 
And when he was blind pull'd the Temple to the ground : 
But St. George, St. George, the Dragon did confound. 

St. George he was, &°c. 

Valentine and Orson they came of Pipins blood, 
Alp/ired and Aldrecus they were brave Knights and good, 
The four sons of Amnon that fought with Charlemaine, 
Sir Hugh de Burdeaux and Godfray of Bolaigne, 
These were all French Knights the Pagans did Convert, 
But St. George, St. George, pull'd forth the Dragon's 
St. George he was, &c. (heart : 

Henry the fifth he Conquered all France, 
He quartered their Armes, his Honour to advance, 
He razed their Walls, and pull'd their Cities down, 
And garnished his Head with a double treble Crown ■ 
He thumbed the French, and after home he came ! 
But St. George, St. George, he made the Dragon tame : 
St. George he was, &°e. 

St. David you know, loves Leeks and tosted Cheese, 
And Jason was the Man, brought home the Golden 
St. Patrick you know he was St. Georges Boy, (Fleece; 
Seven years he kept his Horse, and then stole him away, 
For which Knavish act, a slave he doth remain ; 

But 



Made up into Pills. 1 66 1 . 131 

But St. George, St. George, he hath the Dragon slain : 
St. George he was, &c. 

Tamberline, the Emperour, in Iron Cage did Crown, 
With his bloody Flag's display'd before the Town ; 
Scanderbag magnanimous Mahomeis Bashaw did dread, 
Whose Victorious Bones were worn when he was dead; 
His Bedlerbegs, his Corn like drags, George Castriot 

was he calFd, 
But St. George, St. George, the Dragon he hath maul'd : 

St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for 
Sing Hony soit qui mal y pense. {France, 

Ottoman, the Tartar, Cham of Persia's race, 

The great Mogul, with his Chests so full of all his Cloves 

and Mace, 
The Grecian youth Bucephalus he manly did bestride, 
But those with all their Worthies Nine, St. George did 

them deride, 
Gustavus Adolphus was Swedelands Warlike King, 
But St. George, St. George, pull'd forth the Dragon's 

sting. 

St. George he was for England, St. Dennis was for 
Sing Hony soit qui mal y pense. (France, 

Pendragon and Cadwallader of 'British blood doe boast, 
Though John of Gant his foes did daunt, St. George 
shal rule the roast ; 

K 2 Agamemnon 



132 Antidote against Melancholy, 

Agamemnon and Cleomedon and Macedon did feats, 
But, compared to our Champion, they were but merely 

cheats; 
Brave Malta Knights in Turkish fights, their brandisht 

swords out-drew, 
But St. George met the Dragon, and ran him through 

and through : 

St. George he was, &c. 

Bidea, the Amazon, Photius overthrew, 

As fierce as either Vandal, Goth, Saracen, or Jew ; 

The potent Holophernes, as he lay in his bed, 

In came wise Judith and subtly stool[e] his head ; 

Brave Cyclops stout, with Jove he fought, Although he 

showr'd down Thunder ; 
But St. George kilPd the Dragon, and was not that a 

wonder : 

St. George he was, &c. 

Mark Anthony, He warrant you Plaid feats with 

Egypts Queen, 
Sir Egla More that valiant Knight, the like was never 

seen, 
Grim Gorgons might, was known in fight, old Bevis 

most men frighted, 
The Myrmidons & Presbyter John, why were not 

those men knighted ? 

Brave 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 133 

Brave Spinola took in Breda, Nasaw did it recover, 
But St. George, St. George, he turn'd the Dragon over 
and over : 

St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for 
Sing, Hony soit qui mal y pense. (France, 



A Ballad call'd Blew Cap for me. 

COme hither thou merriest of all the Nine, [p. 29] 
Come, sit you down by me, and let us be jolly ; 
And with a full Cup of Apollds wine, 

Wee'l dare our Enemy mad Melancholly ; 
And when we have done, wee'l between us devise 
A pleasant new Dity by Art to comprise : 

And of this new Dity the matter shall be, 
If ever I have a man, blew cap for me. 

There dwells a blith Lass in Falkland Town 
And she hath Suitors I know not how many, 

And her resolution she had set down 
That she'l have a Blew Cap, if ever she have any. 
An Englishman when our geod Knight was there, 
Came often unto her, and loved her dear, 

Yet still she replyed, Geod Sir, La be, 
If ever I have a man, blew cap for me. 

A 
k 3 



134 Antidote against Melancholy, 

A Welchman that had a long Sword by his side, 
Red Doublet, red Breech, and red Coat, and red 

Was made a great shew of a great deal of pride, (Peard, 
Was tell her strange tales te like never heard ; 

Was recon her pedegree long pefore Pmte\f\ 

No body was near that could her Confute ; 
But still she reply'd, Geod Sir la be, 

If ever I have a man, blew Cap for me. 

A Frenchman that largely was booted and spurr'd, 
Long Lock with a ribbon, long points and long 
preeshes, 

Was ready to kisse her at every word, 

And for the other exercises his fingers itches ; 

You be prety wench a Metrel, par ma Foy, 

Dear me do love you, be not so coy ; 
Yet still replyed, Geod Sir, la be ; 

If ever I have a man, blew Cap for me. 

An Irishman, with a long skeen in his Hose, 
Did think to obtain her, it was no great matter, 

Up stairs to the chamber so lightly he goes, 
That she never heard him until he came at her, 

Quoth he, I do love thee, by Fait and by Trot, 

And if thou wilt know it, experience shall sho't, 
Yet still she reply'd, Geod sir, la be, 

If ever I have a man, blew Cap for me. 

A 



Made tip into Pills. 1 66 1 . 135 

A Netherla?id Mariner came there by chance, 

Whose cheekes did resemble two rosting pome- 
watters, 

And to this Blith lasse this sute did advance; 

Experience had taught him to cog, lie, and flatter • 

Quoth he, I will make thee sole Lady of the sea, 

Both Spanyard and English man shall thee obey : 
Yet still she replyed, [Geod sir, La be. 

If ever I have a man, blew cap for me]. 

At last came a Scotchman with a blew Cap, 

And that was the man for whom she had tarryed, 

To get this Blyth lass it was his Giud hap, 

They gan to Kirk and were presently married; 

She car'd not whether he were Lord or Leard, 

She call'd him sick a like name as I ne'r heard, 
To get him from aw she did well agree, 

And still she cryed, blew Cap thou art welcome to mee. 



The Ballad of the Caps. [p. 30.] 

THe Wit hath long beholding been 
Unto the Cap to keep it in ; 
But now the wits fly out amain, 
In prayse to quit the Cap again ; 

The 

K4 



1 36 Antidote against Melancholy, 

The Cap that keeps the highest part 
Obtains the place by due desert : 

For any Cap, &>c. [what ere it bee, 
Is still the signe of some degree.'] 

The Monmouth Cap, the Saylors thrumbe, 
And that wherein the Tradesmen come, 

The Physick Cap, the Cap Divine, 

And that which Crownes the Muses nine, 

The Cap that fooles do Countenance, 
The goodly Cap of Maintenance. 
For any Cap, &c. 

The sickly Cap both plain and wrought, 
The Fudling cap, how ever bought, 

The worsted, Furr'd, the Velvet, Sattin, 
For which so many pates learn Latin ; 

The Cruel cap, the Fustian Pate, 

The Perewig, a Cap of late : 

For any Cap, 6°<r. 

The Souldiers that the Monmoth wear, 
On Castles tops their Ensigns rear ; 
The Sea-man with his Thrumb doth stand 

On higher parts then all the Land ; 
The Tradesmans Cap aloft is born, 
By vantage of a stately horn. 
For any Cap, &>c. 

The 



Made up into Pills. 1 66 1 . 137 

The Physick Cap to dust can bring 
Without controul the greatest King : 

The Lawyers Cap hath Heavenly might 
To make a crooked action straight ; 

And if you'l line him in the fist, 
The Cause hee'l warrant as he list. 
For any Cap, &>c. 

Both East and West, and North and South, 
Where ere the Gospel hath a mouth 

The Cap Divine doth thither look : 

Tis Square like Scholars and their Books : 

The rest are Round, but this is Square 
To shew their Wits more stable are : 
For any Cap, &*c. 

The Jester he a Cap doth wear, 

Which makes him Fellow for a Peer, 

And 'tis no slender piece of Wit 
To act the Fool, where great Men sit, 

But O, the Cap of London Town ! 
I wis, 'tis like a goodly Crown. 
For any Cap, &*c. 

The sickly Cap [,] though wrought with silk, 

Is like repentance, white as milk ; 
When Caps drop off at health apace, 

The Cap doth then your head uncase, 

The 



138 Antidote against Melancholy, 

The sick mans Cap (if wrought can tell) 
Though he be sick, his cap is well. 
For any Cap, &c. 

The fudling Cap by Bacchus Might, 
Turns night to day, and day to night; 

We know it makes proud heads to bend, 
The Lowly feet for to Ascend : 

It makes men richer then before, 
By seeing doubly all their score. 
For any Cap, &"c. 

The furr'd and quilted Cap of age 
Can make a mouldy proverb sage, 

The Satin and the Velvet hive 
Into a Bishoprick may thrive, 

The Triple Cap may raise some hope, 
If fortune serve, to be a Pope ; 
For any Cap, &c. 

The Perewig, O, this declares 

The rise of flesh, though fall of haires, 
And none but Grandsiers can proceed 

So far in sin, till they this need, 
Before the King who covered are, 
And only to themselves stand bare. 
For any Cap, what ere it bee, 
Is still the signe of some degi-ee. 



[Next 



Made tip into Pills. 1661. 139 

[Next follow A Ballad of the Nose (see Merry Drollery, Corn- 
bleat, p. 143), and A Song of the Hot-headed Zealot : to the tune 
f" Tom a Bedlam" (Dr. Richard Corbet's, Ibid, p. 234).] 



A Song On the Schismatick Rot undo s. [p. 37.] 

ONce I a curious Eye did fix, 
To observe the tricks 
Of the schismatics of the Times, 
To find out which of them 

Was the merriest Theme, 
And best would befit my Rimes. 
Arminius I found solid, 

Socinians were not stolid, 
Much Learning for Papists did stickle. 

But ah, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, Rotundos rot, 
Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, Rotundos rot, 

'Tis you that my spleen doth tickle. 

And first to tell must not be forgot, 

How I once did trot 
With a great Zealot to a Lecture, 
Where I a Tub did view, 

Hung with apron blew : 
'Twas the Preachers, as I conjecture. 
His life and his Doctrine too 
Were of no other hue, 
Though he spake in a tone most mickle ; 

But ah, ha, ha, ha, &c. He 



140 Antidote against Melancholy. 

He taught amongst other prety things 

That the Book of Kings 
Small benefit brings to the godly, 

Beside he had some grudges 

At the Book of fudges, 
And talkt of Leviticus odly. 
Wisedome most of all 

He declares Apocryphal, 
Beat Bell and the Dragon like Michel : 
But, ah, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ore. 

Gainst Humaine Learning next he enveyes 

and most boldly say's, 
Tis that which destroyes Inspiration : 

Let superstitious sence 

And wit be banished hence, 
With Popish Predomination : 
Cut Bishops down in hast, 

And Cathedrals as fast 
As corn that's fit for the sickle : 

But ah, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, Rotundos, rot, 
ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha Rotundos rot, 

Tis you that my spleen doth tickle. 



[The three next in the Antidote, respectively by Aurelian Towns- 
hend (?), Sir John Suckling, and "by T. R." (or Dr. Thomas 
Wild?), are to be found also in our Merry Drollery, Compleat, 
pp. 218, 1 01, and 242. See Appendix Notes.] 

The 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 141 

The Welshmans Song, in praise of 

Wales. [p. 47.] 

I'S not come here to tauke of Prut, 
From whence the Welse dos take hur root ; 
Nor tell long Pedegree of Prince Camber, 
Whose linage would fill full a Chamber, 
Nor sing the deeds of ould Saint Davie, 
The Ursip of which would fill a Navie, 
But hark me now for a liddell tales 
Sail make a great deal to the creddit of Wales : 
For her will tudge your eares, 
With the praise of hur thirteen Seers, 
And make you as clad and merry, 
As fourteen pot of Perry. 

Tis true, was wear him Sherkin freize, 

But what is that ? we have store of seize, [i. e. cheese,] 

And Got is plenty of Goats milk 

That[,] sell him well[,] will buy him silk 

Inough, to make him fine to quarrell 

At Herford Sizes in new apparrell ; 

And get him as much green Melmet perhap, 

Sail give it a face to his Monmouth Cap. 

But then the ore of Lemster; 

Py Cot is uver a Sempster ; 

That when he is spun, or did[,] 

Yet match him with hir thrid. 

Aull 



142 



Antidote against Melancholy. 



Aull this the backs now, let us tell yee, 

Of some provision for the belly : 

As Kid and Goat, and great Goats Mother, 

And Runt and Cow, and good Cows uther. 

And once but tast on the Welse Mutton, 

Your Englis Seeps not worth a button. 

And then for your Fisse, shall choose it your disse, 

Look but about, and there is a Trout, 

A Salmon, Cot, or Chevin, 

Will feed you six or seven, 

As taull man as ever swagger 

With Welse Club, and long dagger. 

But all this while, was never think 
A word in praise of our Welse drink : 
And yet for aull that, is a Cup of Bragat, 
Aull England Seer may cast his Cap at. 
And what say you to Ale of Webly [?], 
Toudge him as well, you'll praise him trebly, 
As well as Metheglin, or Syder, or Meath, 
Sail sake it your dagger quite out o' th seath. 

And Oat-Cake of Guarthenion, 

With a goodly Leek or Onion, 

To give as sweet a rellis 

As e'r did Harper Ellis. 



And yet is nothing now all this, 
If our Musicks we do misse ; 



Both 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 143 

Both Harps, and Pipes too ; and the Crowd 

Must aull come in, and tauk aloud, 

As lowd as Bangu, Davies Bell, 

Of which is no doubt you have hear tell : 

As well as our lowder Wrexam Organ, 

And rumbling Rocks in the Seer of Glamorgan; 

Where look but in the ground there, 

And you sail see a sound there : 

That put her all to gedder, 

Is sweet as measure pedder. 



[Followed, in An Antidote, by the excellent poems, The Caval- 
ier's Complaint; to the tune of (Suckling's) Vie tell thee, Dick, 
&c, with The Answer. For these, see Merry Drollery, Corn- 
pleat, pp. 52-56, and 367.]; 



On a Pint of Sack. [p. 5: 

OLd poets Hipocrin admire, 
And pray to water to inspire 
Their wit and Muse with heavenly fire ; 
Had they this Heav'nly Fountain seen, 
Sack both their Well and Muse had been, 
And this Pint-pot their Hipocrin. 

Had they truly discovered it 
They had like me thought it unfit 
To pray to water for their wit. 



And 



144 Antidote against Melancholy \ 

And had adored Sack as divine, 
And made a Poet God of Wine, 
And this pint-pot had been a shrine. 

Sack unto them had been in stead 
Of Nectar, and their heav'nly bread, 
And ev'ry boy a Ganimed ; 
Or had they made a God of it, 
Or stiPd it patron of their wit, 
This pot had been a temple fit. 

Well then Companions is't not fit, 
Since to this Jemme we ow[e] our wit, 
That we should praise the Cabonet, 
And drink a health to this divine, 
And bounteous pallace of our wine [?] 
Die he with thirst that doth repine ! 



A Song in Praise of Sack. [p. 53.] 

HAng the Presbyters Gill, bring a pint of Sack, 
More Orthodox of the two, ( Will, 

Though a slender dispute, will strike the Elf mute, 
Here's one of the honester Crew. 

In 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 145 

In a pint there's small heart, Sirrah, bring a Quart ; 

There is substance and vigour met, 
'Twill hold us in play, some part of the day, 

But wee'l sink him before Sun-set : 

The daring old Pottle, does now bid us battle, 
Let us try what our strength can do ; 

Keep your ranks and your files, and for all his wiles, 
Wee'l tumble him down stayrs too. 

Then summon a Gallon, a stout Foe and a tall one, 

And likely to hold us to't ; 
Keep but Coyn in your purse, the word is Disburse, 

He warrant he'le sleep at your foot. 

Let's drain the whole Celler, Pipes, Buts, and the 
If the Wine floats not the faster ; (Dweller, 

Will, when thou dost slack us, by warrant from Bacchus, 
We will cane thy tun-belli'd Master. 

In the praise of WINE. [p. 54.] 

Jr I ^Is Wine that inspires, 

X And quencheth Loves fires, 

Teaches fools how to rule a S[t]ate : 
Mayds ne're did approve it 

Because those that doe love it, 
Despise and laugh at their hate. 

The 



146 Antidote against Melancholy, 

The drinkers of beer 

Did ne're yet appear 
In matters of any waight ; 

'Tis he whose designe 
Is quickn'd by wine 

That raises things to their height. 

We then should it prize 

For never black eyes 
Made wounds which this could not heale, 

Who then doth refuse, 
To drink of this Juice 

Is a foe to the Comon weale. 



[Followed by A Glee to the Vicar, beginning, " Let the bells 
ring, and the boys sing :" for which see the Introduction to our 
edition of Westminster Drollery, pp. xxxvii-viii.] 



On a Cold Chyne of BEEF. [p. 55.] 

BRing out the Old Chyne, the Cold Chyne to me, 
And how He charge him come and see, 
Brawn tusked, "Brawn well sowst and fine, 
With a precious cup of Muscadine : 

Chorus. 
How shall I sing, how shall I look. 
In honour of the Master- Cook? 

The 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 147 

The Pig shall turn round and answer me, 
Canst thou spare me a shoulder [?], a wy, a wy. 
The Duck, Goose and Capon, good fellows all three 
Shall dance thee an antick[,] so shall the turkey ; 

But O ! the cold Chyne, the cold Chyne for me : 

Chorus. 
How shall I sing, how shall I look. 
In honour of the Master-Cook ? 

With brewis He noynt thee from head to th' heel, 
Shal make thee run nimbler then the new oyld wheel [;] 
With Pye-crust wee'l make thee 
The eighth wise man to be ; 

But O ! the cold Chyne, the cold Chyne for me : 

Chorus. 
How shall I sing, how shall I look, 
In honour of the Master-Cook ? 



A Song of Cupid Scorn' d. [p. 56] 

IN love [?] away, you do me wrong, 
I hope I ha' not liv'd so long 
Free from the Treachery of your eyes, 
Now to be caught and made a prize, 



No, 



L 2 



148 Antidote against Melancholy, 

No, Lady, 'tis not all your art, 

Can make me and my freedome part. 

Chorus. 
Come, fill's a cup of sherry, and let us be merry, 
There shall nought but pure wine 
Make us love-sick or pine, 
WeJl hug the cup and kisse it, we' I sigh when ere 
we misse it; 
For tis that, that makes us jolly, 
And sing hy trololey lolly. 

In love, 'tis true, with Spanish wine, 

Or the French juice Incarnadine; 

But truly not with your sweet Face, 

This dimple, or that hidden grace, 

Ther's far more sweetnesse in pure Wine, 
Then in those Lips or Eyes of thine. 

Chorus (Come, fill's a cup of sherry, &>c. 

Your god[,] you say, can shoot so right, 
Hee'l wound a heart ith darkest night : 
Pray let him throw away a dart, 
And try if he can hit my heart. 

No Cupid, if I shall be thine, 

Turn Ganimedand fill us Wine. 

Chorus (Come, fill's a cup of sherry, &*c. 

[The 






Made up into Pills. 1661. 149 

[The three next are common to the Antidote and Merry Drol- 
lery, Compleat, with a few verbal differences : On the Vertue of 
Sack, by Dr. Henry Edwards ; The Medley of the Nations ; and 
The Brewer, A Ballad made in the Year 1657, To the Tune of 
The Blacksmith. For them, see M. D., C, pp. 293, 127, 221. 
These three poems are followed by "A Collection of Merry 
Catches," thirty-four in number, of which only ten are found in 
Merry Drollery, Compleat, (viz., 3. "Now that the Spring;" 5. 
"Call George again;" 9. "She that will eat;" 13. " The Wise- 
men were but Seven ;" 14. " Shew a room!" 15. "O! the wily 
wily Fox ;" 17. " Now I am married;" 19. "There was three 
Cooks in Colebrook ;" 22. "If any so wise is ;" and 29. "What 
fortune had I,") on pp. 296, 304, 308, 232, 337, 300, 280, 318, 
348, and 341, respectively. See notes on them, also, in Appendix 
to M. D., C. One other, first in the Antidote, had appeared 
earlier in Choice Drollery, p. 52 : "He that a Tinker," &c, q. v.] 



A CATCH. [p. 65.] 

2. "\ TOu. merry Poets[J old Boyes 
X Of Aganippes Well, 
Full many tales have told boyes 

Whose liquor doth excell, 
And how that place was haunted 
By those that love good wine ; 
Who tipled there, and chaunted 

Among the Muses nine : 
Where still they cry'd [,] drink clear, boyes, 

And you shall quickly know it, 
That 'tis not lowzy Beer, boyes, 
But wine, that makes a Poet. 

A 
L3 



1 50 Antidote against Melancholy, 

A CATCH. [p. 66.] 

4. 1\ It Ong'st all the precious Juices 
lVX Afforded for our uses, 
Ther's none to be compar'd with Sack : 
For the body or the mind, 
No such Physick you shall find, 
Therefore boy see we do not lack. 

Would'st thou hit a lofty strain, 
With this Liquor warm thy brain, 

And thou Swain shalt sing as sweet as Sidney ; 
Or would'st thou laugh and be fat, 
Ther's not any like to that 

To make Jack Sprat a man of kidney. 

[It] Is the soul of mirth 

To poor Mortals upon Earth ; 

It would make a coward bold as Hector, 
Nay I wager durst a Peece, 
That those merry Gods of Greece 

Drank old Sack and Nector. 



A CATCH. [p. 67.] 

6. ^Ome, come away to the Tavern I say, 

V y For now at home 'tis washing day : 

Leave your prittle prattle, and fill us a pottle [;] 
You are not so wise as Aristotle : 
Drawer come away, let's make it Holy day. 
Anon, Anon, Anon, Sir : what is't you say [?] 



Made up into Pills. 1 66 1 . 151 

A CATCH. 
7. ' 1 ^Here was an- old man at Walton cross, [Waltham] 
X Who merrily sung when he liv'd by the loss; 
Hey tro-ly loly lo. 
He never was heard to sigh a hey ho, 
But he sent it out with Hey troly loly lo. 
He chear'd up his heart, 
When his goods went to wrack[,] 
With a hem, boy, Hem ! 
And a cup of old Sack ; 
Sing, hey troly loly lo. 



A CATCH. 

8. ^Ome, let us cast Dice who shall drink, 

V ' Mine is twelve, and his sice sink, 

Six and Fowr is thine, and he threw nine. 
Come away, Sink tray ; Size ace, fair play ; 
Quuter-duce is your throw Sir ; [p. 68.] 

Quater-ace, they run low, sir : 
Two Dewces, I see ; Dewce ace is but three : 
Oh ! where is the Wine ? Come, fill up his glasse, 
For here is the man has thrown Ams-ace. 



A CATCH. 

(wife, 

I o. "IV T Ever let a man take heavily the clamor of his 
1 \| But be rul'd by me, and lead a merry life ; 
Let her have her will in every thing, 
If she scolds, then laugh and sing, 

Hey derry, derry, ding. A 



152 A ntidote against Melancholy, 

A CATCH. 
1 1. T Et's cast away care, and merrily sing, 
I v There is a time for every thing ; 
He that playes at work, and works at his play, 
Neither keeps working, nor yet Holy day : 
Set business aside, and let us be merry, 
And drown our dull thoughts in Canary and Sherry. 



A CATCH. 
1 2. T T Ang sorrow, and cast away care, 
X 1 And let us drink up our Sack : 
They say 'tis good to cherish the blood, 

And for to strengthen the back : 
Tis Wine that makes the thoughts aspire, 

And fills the body with heat ; 
Besides 'tis good, if well understood [p. 69.] 
To fit a man for the feat; 
Then call, and drink up all, 

The drawer is ready to fill: 
Pox take care, what need we to spare, 
My Father has made his will. 



A CATCH. [p. 70.] 

16. 1\ /T Y lady and her Maid, upon a merry pin, 
1VJL They made a match at F . . ting, who 
should the wager win. (upright ; 

Jone lights three candles then, and sets them bolt 

With 



Made tip into Pills. 1 66 1 . 153 

With the first f . . . she blew them out, 
With the next she gave them light : 
In comes my Lady then, with all her might and main, 
And blew them out, and in and out, and out and 
in again. 



A CATCH. 
18. A N old house end, an old house end, 

ii And many a good fellow wants mon[e]y to 
If thou wilt borrow (spend. 

Come hither to morrow 
I dare not part so soon with my friend[.] 
But let us be merry, and drink of our sherry, 
But to part with my mon[e]y I do not intendf.] 
Then a t . . d in thy teeth, and an old house end. 



A CATCH. [p. 71.] 

20. "\ 1L 7* lit thou lend me thy Mare to ride a mile 

V V No; she's lame going over a stile, 
But if thou wilt her to me spare 
Thou shalt have mony for thy mare : 
Oh say you so, say you so, 
Mon[e]y will make my mare to go. 

THE ANSWER. 

21. A 7" Our mare is lame ; she halts downe right, 

X Then shall we not get to London to night : 

You 



1 54 Antidote against Melancholy, 

You cry'd ho, ho, mon[e]y made her go, 
But now I well perceive it is not so[.] 
You must spur her up, and put her to't 
Though mon[e]y will not make her goe, your spurs 
will do't. 



A CATCH [p. 72.] 

23. /^* Ood Symon, how comes it your Nose looks 
vJ so red, 

And your cheeks and lips look so pale? 
Sure the heat of the tost your Nose did so rost, 

When they were both sous't in Ale. 
It showes like the Spire of Pauls steeple on fire, 
Each Ruby darts forth (such lightning) Flashes, 
While your face looks as dead, as if it were Lead, 

And cover'd all over with ashes. 
Now to heighten his colour, yet fill his pot fuller 

And nick it not so with froth, 
Gra-mercy,mine Host ! it shall save the[e] a Toast : 

Sup Simon, for here is good broth. 



A CATCH. 
24, "\ ~\ Tilt thou be Fatt, He tell thee how, 
V V Thou shalt quickly do the Feat ; 
And that so plump a thing as thou 
Was never yet made up of meat : 
Drink off thy Sack, twas onely that 
Made Bacchus and Jack Falstafe, Fatt. 



Now, 



Made tip into Pills. 1 66 1 . 155 

Now, every Fat man I advise, 

That scarce can peep out of his eyes, 

Which being set, can hardly rise; [p. 73.] 

Drink off his Sack, and freely quaff: 

'Twil make him lean, but me [to] laugh 

To tell him how 'tis on a staff. 



A CATCH. 
25. /^\F all the Birds that ever I see, 

Vy The Owle is the fairest in her degree ; 
For all the day long she sits in a tree, 
And when the night comes, away flies she ; 

To whit, to whow, to whom drinkf'st] thou, 
Sir Knave to thou ; 

This song is well sung, I make you a vow, [p. 73] 
And he is a knave that drinketh now ; (red Nose ? 
Nose, Nose, Nose, and who gave thee that jolly 
[Cinnamon and gin-ger,] (red Nose. 

Nutmegs and Cloves, and that gave thee thy jolly 



A CATCH. 

26. r I ^ His Ale, my bonny Lads, is as brown as a berry, 
X Then let us be merry here an houre, 
And drink it ere its sowre 
Here's to the[e], lad, 
Come to me, lad; 

Let it come Boy, To my Thumb boy. 
Drink it off Sir ; 'tis enough Sir ; 
Fill mine Host, Touts Pot and Toast. A 



156 Antidote against Melancholy, 



■■vn 



A CATCH. 

ire we met ? coi 
here's enough to sing this Glee. 



27. T 71 7'^ at ■ are we met ^ come > l et ' s see 



Look about, count your number, 

Singing will keep us from crazy slumber ; 

1, 2, and 3, so many there be that can sing, 

The rest for wine may ring : 

Here is Tom Jack and Harry; 

Sing away and doe not tarry, 
Merrily now let's sing, carouse, and tiple, 
Here's Bristow milk, come suck this niple, 
There's a fault sir, never halt Sir, before a criple. 



J, 



A CATCH. 

28. "f Og on, jog on the Foot path-way, 
And merrily hen't the stile-a ; 
Your merry heart go'es all the day, 

Your sad tires in a mile-a. 
Your paltry mony bags of Gold, 

What need have we to stare-for, 
When little or nothing soon is told, 
And we have the less to care-for ? 
Cast care away, let sorrow cease, [p. 74.] 

A Figg for Melancholly ; 
Let's laugh and sing, or if you please, 
We'l frolick with sweet Dolly. 

A 



Made up into Pills. 1661. 157 

A SONG. 

Translated out of Greek. 
30. ' 1 A He parcht Earth drinks the Rain, 
X. Trees drink it up again ; 
The Sea the Ay re doth quaff, 
Sol drinks the Ocean off ; 
And when that Health is done, 
Pale Cinthia drinks the sun : 
Why, then, d'ye stem my drinking Tyde, 
Striving to make me sad, I will, I will be mad. 



A CATCH. [p. 75.] 

31. I ^Ly, Boy, Fly, Boy, to the Cellars bottom : 
± View well your Quills and Bung, Sir. 
Draw Wine to preserve the Lungs Sir ; 
Not rascally Wine to Rot u'm. 
If the Quill runs foul, 
Be a trusty soul, and cane it ; 
For the Health is such 
An ill drop will much profane it. 



UPON A WELCHMAN. 

32. A Man of Wales, a litle before Easter 

±\. Ran on his Hostes score for Cheese a teaster : 
His Hostes chalkt it up behind the doore, (score : 
And said, For Cheese (good Sir) Come pay the 
Cod's Pluternails (quoth he) what meaneth these ? 
What dost thou think her knows not Chalk from 

(Cheese ? 



158 A ntidote against Melancholy \ 

A SONG. 



33. T~ \Rink, drink, all you that think 

1 J To cure your souls of sadnesse ; 
Take up your Sack, 'tis all you lack, 
All worldly care is madness. 
Let Lawyers plead, and Schollars read,. 
And Sectaries still conjecture, 

Yet we can be as merry as they, 
With a Cup of Apollo's nectar. 

Let gluttons feed, and souldiers bleed, 

And fight for reputation, 

Physicians be fools to fill up close stools, 

And cure men by purgation : 

Yet we have a way far better than they, 

Which Galen could never conjecture, 

To cure the head, nay quicken the dead, 
With a cup of Apollo's Nectar. 

We do forget we are in debt 

When we with liquor are warmed ; 

We dare out-face the Sergeant's Mace, [p. 76. 

And Martiall Troops though armed. 

The Swedish King much honour did win, 

And valiant was as Hector; 

Yet we can be as valiant as he, 
With a cup of Apollo's Nectar. 

Let 



Made tip into Pills. 1661. 159 

Let the worlds slave his comfort have, 

And hug his hoards of treasure, 

Till he and his wish meet both in a dish, 

So dies a miser in pleasure. 

; Tis not a fat farm our wishes can charm, 

We scorn this greedy conjecture ; (commend 

Tis a health to our friend, to whom we 
This cup of Apollo's Nectar. 

The Pipe and the Pot, are our common shot, 

Wherewith we keep a quarter \ 

Enough for to choak with fire and smoak 

The Great Turk and the Tartar. 

Our faces red, our ensignes spread, 

Apollo is our Protector : 

To rear up the Scout, to run in and out, 
And drink up this cup of Nectar. 



A CATCH. 

34. "\ Ti TElcome, welcome again to thy wits, 
VV This is a Holy day : 

I'le have no plots nor melancholly fits, 
But merrily passe the time away : 
They are mad that are sad ; 
Be rul'd, by me, 
And none shall be so merry as we ; 

The 



160 Antidote against Melancholy, 

The Kitchin shall catch cold no more, 
And we'l have no key to the Buttery dore, 
The fidlers shall sing, 
And the house shall ring, 
And the world shall see 
What a merry couple, 
Merry couple, 
We will be. 



FINIS. 



Songs 



i6i 

EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT : 

I. ON THE "AUTHOR" OF 

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY, 
1661. 



THANKS be to the worthy bookseller, George 
Thomason,* for prudence in laying aside the "tall 
copy " of this amusing book, from which we make our 
transcript of text and engraving. Probably it did not 
exceed two shillings, in price ; (at least, we have seen 

* George Thomason. It was in 1640 that this bookseller com- 
menced * systematically to preserve a copy of every pamphlet, 
broadside, and printed book connected with the political distur- 
bances. Until after the Restoration in 1660, he continued his 
valuable collection, so far as possible without omission, but not 
without danger and interruption. In his will he speaks of it as 
" not to be paralleled," and it was intact at Oxford when he died 
in 1666. Charles II. had too many feminine claimants on his 
money and time to allow him to purchase the invaluable series 
of printed documents, as it had been desired that he should do. 
The sum of ,£4,000 was refused for this collection of 30,000 
pamphlets, bound in 2,000 volumes ; but, after several changes 
of ownership, they were ultimately purchased by King George 
the Third, for only three or four hundred pounds, and were pre- 
sented by him to the nation. They are in the British Museum, 
known as the King's Pamphlets, and the Antidote against Melan- 
choly is among the small quartos. See Isaac D'Israeli's Ameni- 
ties of Literature, for an interesting account of the difficulties 
and perils attending their collection : article Pamphlets, pp. 685- 
691. edition 1868. 

M 



1 62 On the Author of 

that Anthony a Wood's uncropt copy of "Merry Drol- 
lery" 1 66 1, is marked in contemporary manuscript 
at " is. 3d.," each part). The title says : — 
These ivitty Poems, though sometime [they~\ 

may seem to halt on crutches, 
Yet they 9 1 all merrily please you 

for your charge, ivhich not much is. 

Who was the "N. D." to whose light labours we are 
indebted for the compounding of these " Witty Ballads, 
jovial Songs, and merry Catches " in Pills warranted to 
cure the ills of Melancholy, had not hitherto been 
ascertained* ; or whether he wrote anything beside the 
above couplet, and the humorous address To the 
Reader, beginning, ** 

There's no Purge 'gainst Melancholy, 

But ivith Bacchus to be jolly : 

All else are but dreggs of Folly, Wc. (p. III.) 

* J. P. Collier, in his invaluable " Bibliographical and Critical 
Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language," 1865, ac- 
knowledges, in reference to " An Antidote against Melancholy,"" 
that "We are without information by whom this collection of 
Poems, Ballads, Songs, and Catches was made ; but Thomas 
Durfey, about sixty years afterwards, imitated the title, when he 
called his six volumes ' Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melan- 
choly,^ 8vo., 1 7 19 — 20.' CBibliog. & Crit. Account, vol. i. p. 26.) 
Again, " If N. D., whose initials are at the end of the rhyming 
address ' to the Reader,' were the person who made the selection, 
we are without any other clue to his name. There is no ground 
for imputing it to Thomas Jordan, excepting that he was accus- 
tomed to deal in productions of this class ; but the songs and 
ballads he printed were usually of his own composition, and not 
the works of anterior versifyers." (Ibid, i. 27.) 



An Antidote against Melancholy, 1661. 163 

As we suspected ( flowing though his verse might be ) , 
he was more of bookseller than ballad-maker. His 
injunctions for us to " be wise and buy, not borrow? 
had a terribly tradesman-like sound. Yet he was right. 
Book-borrowing is an evil practice ; and book-lending 
is not much better. Woeful chasms, in what should be 
the serried ranks of our Library companions, remind 
us pathetically, in too many cases (book-cases, es- 
pecially,) of some Coleridge-like " lifter " of Lambs, 
who made a raid upon our borders, and carried off 
plunder, sometimes an unique quarto, on other days 
an irrecoverable duodecimo : With Schiller, we bewail 
the departed, — 

" The beautiful is vanished, and returns not." 

The title of " Pills to Purge Melancholy" was by 
Playford and Tom D'Urfey afterwards employed, and 
kept alive before the public, in many a volume from 
before 1684 until 1720, if not later. Whether " N. 
D." himself were the " Merfcury] Melancholicus " 
whose name appears as printer, for the book to be 
" sold in London and Westminster," is to us not doubt- 
ful. By April 18, 1661,* Thomason had secured his 

* It was a week of supreme rejoicing- and frollic, being five 
days before the Coronation of Charles II. in Westminster Abbey, 
April 23rd. On the 19th were the ceremonies of the Knights of 
the Bath, at the Painted Chamber, and in the Chapel at White- 
hall. On the 22nd, Charles went from the Tower to Whitehall, 
through well-built triumphal arches, and amid enthusiasm. 
M 2 



164 On the Author of 

copy, and there need be no question that it was for 
sport, and not through any fear of rigid censorship or 
malicious pettifogging interference by the law, that, 
instead of printer's name, this pseudonym or nick- 
name was adopted. 

We believe that the mystery shrouding the per- 
sonality of " N. D." can be dispelled. The discovery 
helps us in more ways than one, and connects the 
Antidote against Melancholy, of 166 1, in an intelligible 
and legitimate manner, with much jocular literature of 
later date. To us it seems clear that N. D. was no 
other than [He]n[ry] [PlayforJd. The triplets ad- 
dressed in 1 66 1 To the Reader, beginning "There's 
no purge 'gainst Melancholy," are repeated at com- 
mencement of the 1684 edition of " Wit and Mirth ; 
or, an Antidote to Melancholy " (the third edition of 
Pills to Purge Melancholy ") where they are entitled 
" The Stationer to the Reader," and signed, not 
" N. D.," but " H. P.;" for Henry Playford, whose 
name appears in full as publisher " near the Temple 
Church." Thus, the repetition or alteration of the 
original title, " An Antidote against Melancholy, made 
up in Pills" or, as the head-line puts it, " Pills to 
Purge Melancholy" was, in all probability, a perfectly 
business-like reproduction of what Playford had him- 
self originated. What relation Henry Playford was 
to John Playford, the publisher of "Select Ayres" 



An Antidote against Melancholy, 1661. 165 

" Choice Ay res" 1652, &c, we are not yet certain. 
Thirteen of the longest and most important poems 
from the 1661 Antidote* re-appear in that of 1684, 
beside four of the Catches. Indeed, the transmission 
of many of these Lyrics (by the editions of 1699, 
1700, 1706, 1707) to the six volume edition, super- 
intended by Tom D'Urfey in 1719-20, is unbroken; 
though we have still to find the edition published 
between 1661 and 1684. 

But even the 1661 Antidote is not entitled to bear 
the credit of originating the phrase : Pills to purge 
Melancholy. So far as we know, by personal search, 
this belongs to Robert Hayman, thirty years earlier. 
Among his Qzwdlibets, 1628, on p. 74, we find the 
following epigram : — 

" To one of the elders of the Sanctified Parlour of 
Amsterdam. 
Though thou maist call my merriments, my folly, 
They are my Pills to purge my melancholy ; 
They -would purge thine too, ivert thou not foole-holy." 

* These are the Blacksmith, the Brewer, Suckling's Parley be- 
tween two West Countrymen concerning a Wedding, St. George 
and the Dragon, the Gelding of the Devil, the Old and Young 
Courtier, the Welchman's Praise of Wales, Ben Jonson's Cook 
Lorrel, " Fetch me Ben Jonson's scull," a Combat of Cocks, 
" Am I mad, O noble Festus ? " " Old Poets Hypocrin admire," 
and " 'Tis Wine that inspires." The Catches are " Drink, drink, 
all you that think ;" " If any so wise is," " What are we met ? " 
and " The thirsty earth drinks up the rain." 



1 66 

A A A A A A A AAA A A AAA A A A A AAA 

EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT : 



2.— ARTHUR 0' BRADLEY. 

(Merry Drollery, Compleat, p. 312,395; Antidote ag. Mel., p. 16.,) 



" Before we came in we heard a great shouting, 

And all that were in it look'd madly ; 
But some were on Bull-back, some dancing a morris, 
And some singing Arthur-a-Bradley." 
— (Robin Hood's Birth, &c. Printed by Wm. Onlen, 
about 1650. In Roxburghe Collection of Black- Letter Bal- 
lads, i., 360.) 



SO long ago as the Editor can remember, the 
words and music of " Arthur o' Bradley's Wed- 
ding " rang pleasantly in his ears. The jovial rollick- 
ing strain prepared him to feel interest in the bridal 
attire of Shakespeare's Petruchio; who, not improbably, 
when about to be married unto " Kate the Curst," 
borrowed the details of costume and demeanour from 
this popular hero of song. Or vice versa. To this 
day, the lilt of the tune holds a fascination, and we 
sometimes behold, under favourable planetary aspects, 
the long procession of dancing couples who have, 
during three centuries, footed the grass, the rushes, or 
chalked floor, to that jig-melody, accompanied by the 



Arthur o> Bradley. 167 

bagpipes or riddle of some rustic Crowdero. Can it 
be possible? Yes, the line is headed by the vener- 
able Queen Elizabeth, holding up her fardingale with 
tips of taper fingers, and looking preternaturally grim, 
to show that dancing is a serious undertaking for a 
virgin sovereign (especially when the Spanish Ambas- 
sador watches her, with comments of wonder that the 
Head of the Church can dance at all). Yet is there a 
sly underglance that tells of fun, to those who are her 
Majesty's familiars. Her " Cousin James " is not the 
neatest figure as a partner (which accounts for her 
having chosen Leicester instead, let alone chronology) ; 
but we see him, close behind, with Anne of Den- 
mark, twilling his crooked little legs about in obedi- 
ence to the music, until his round hose swell like 
hemispheres on school-maps. " Baby Charles and 
Steenie," half mockingly, follow after with the Infanta. 
We did cnce catch a glimpse of handsome Carr and 
his wicked paramour, Frances Howard, trying to join 
the Terpsichorean revellers; but, beautiful as they 
both were, it was felt necessary to exclude them, "for 
the honour of Arthur o' Bradley," since they possessed 
none of their own. What a gallant assemblage of 
poefc and dramatists covered the buckle and snapped 
their fingers gleefully to the merry notes ! Foremost 
amoig them was rare Ben Jonson (unable to resist 
clotiing Adam Overdo in Arthur's own mantle) ; and 
m 4 



1 68 Arthur d Bradley. 

honest Thomas Dekker "followed after in a dream" 
(as had been memorably printed on our seventh page 
of Choyce Drollery), thinking of Bellafront's repen- 
tance, and her quotation of the well-known burden, 
" O brave Arthur o' Bradley, then ! " A score of poets 
are junketting with merry milkmaids and Wives of 
Windsor. Richard Brathwaite (the creator of Drunken 
Barnaby) is not absent from among them ; although 
he sees, outside the circle that for a moment has 
formed around a Maypole, an angry crowd of schis- 
matic Puritans, who are scowling at them yith malig- 
nant eyes, and denunciations misquoted fiom Scrip- 
ture. Many a fair Precisian, nevertheless, yields to 
the honeyed pleading of a be-love-locked Cavalier, and 
the irresistible charms of "Arthur o' Bracley, ho !" 
showing the prettiest pair of ankles, and the most de- 
lightful mixture of bashfulness and enjoymait ; until 
the Roundhead Buff-coats prove too numerous, and 
whisk her off to a conventicle, where, the sexes sitting 
widely apart, for aught we know, the crop-eaiec 1 rout 
sing unpoetic versions of the Psalmist to the tuie of 
Arthur o' Bradley, "godlified" and eke expurgated. 

Cromwell, we know, loved music, withal, and it is 
not unlikely that those two ladies are his daughters, 
whom we behold dancing somewhat stifly in [ohn 
Hingston's music-chamber ; Mrs. Claypole and her 
sister, Mrs Rich : there are L'Estrange, who fiddles 



Arthur d Bradley. 169 

to them, and Old Noll, smiling pleasantly, though the 
tune be Arthur o' Bradley. Our Second Charles (not 
yet "Restored") is also dancing to it, at the Hague 
(as we see in Janssen's Windsor picture), with the 
Princess Palatine Elizabeth, and such a bevy of bright 
faces round them, that we lose our heart entirely. 
Can we not see him again — crowned now, and self- 
acknowledged as "Old Rowley" — at one of the many 
balls in Whitehall recorded by Samuel Pepys,* enter- 

* Ball at Court. — "31st. [December, 1662.] Mr. Povy and I 
to "White Hall ; he taking me thither on purpose to carry me into 
the ball this night before the King. He brought me first to the 
Duke [of York]'s chamber, where I saw him and the Duchesse at 
supper ; and thence into the room where the ball was to be ; 
crammed with fine ladies, the greatest of the Court. By and by, 
comes the King and Queene, the Duke and Duchesse, and all the 
great ones ; and after seating themselves, the King takes out the 
Duchesse of York ; and the Duke, the Duchesse of Buckingham ; 
the Duke of Monmouth, my Lady Castlemaine; and so other lords 
other ladies : and they danced the Brantle \? Braule] . After that 
the King led a lady a single Coranto ; and then the rest of the 
lords, one after another, other ladies : very noble it was, and great 
pleasure to see. Then to country dances ; the King leading the 
first, which he called for, which was, says he, ' Cuckolds all 
awry [a-row],' the old dance of England. Of the ladies that 
danced, the Duke of Monmouth's mistress, and my Lady Castle- 
maine, and a daughter of Sir Harry de Vicke's, were the best. 
The manner was, when the King dances, all the ladies in the 
room, and the Queene herself, stand up : and indeed he dances 
rarely, and much better than the Duke of York. Having staid 
here as long as I thought fit, to my infinite content, it being the 
greatest pleasure I could wish now to see at Court, I went home, 
leaving them dancing.'' — (Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., 
Secretary to the Admiralty, &c.) 



170 Arthur d Bradley. 

ing gaily into all the mirth with that grave, swarthy 
faee of his; not noticing the pouts of Catherine, who 
sits neglected while The Castlemaine laughs loudly, 
the fair Stewart simpers, and the little spaniels bark 
or caper through the palace, snapping at the dancers' 
heels ? Be sure that pretty Nelly and saucy Knipp 
were also well acquainted with the music of "rare 
Arthur o' Bradley," as indeed were thousands of the 
play-goers to whom the former once sold oranges. 

And lower ranks delighted in it. Pierce, the Bag- 
piper, is himself the central figure, when we look 
again, " with cheeks as big as a mitre," such time as 
that table-full of Restoration revellers (whom we catch 
sight of in our frontispiece to the Antidote, 1661) are 
beginning to shake a toe in honour of the music. 

So it continues for two centuries more, with all 
varieties of costume and feature. Certain are we that 
plump Sir Richard Steele whistled the tune, and Dean 
Swift gave the Dublin ballad-singer a couple of thir- 
teens for singing it. Dr. Johnson grunted an accom- 
paniment whenever he heard the melody, and James 
Boswell insisted on dancing to it, though a little 
" overtaken," and got his sword entangled betwixt his 
legs, which cost him a fall and a plastered head-piece, 
by no means for the only time on record. It is re- 
ported that good old George the Third was seen en- 
deavouring to persuade Queen Charlotte to accom- 



A rthur d Bradley. 171 

pany him on the Spinnet, while he set their numerous 
olive-branches jigging it delightedly u for the honour of 
Arthur d Bradley." But whenever Dr. John Wolcot 
was reported to be prowling near at hand, with Peter 
Pindaresque eyes, the motion ceased. Well was it 
loved by honest Joseph Ritson, imftiger, iracundus 
inexorabilis, acer — better than vegetable diet and 
eccentric spelling, or the flagellation of inexact anti- 
quarian Bishops. We ourselves may have beheld 
him in high glee perusing the black-letter ballad, and 
rectifying its corrupt text by the Antidote against 
Melancholy's. How lustily he skipped, shouting mean- 
while the burden of "brave Arthur d Bradley!" so 
that unconsciously he joined the ten-mile train of 
dancers. They are still winding around us, some in 
a Nineteenth-Century garb (a little tattered, but it 
adds to the picturesqueness), blithe Hop-pickers of 
West-Bridge Deanery. There are a few New Zea- 
landers, we understand, waiting to join the throng, 
(including Macaulay's own particular circumnavigating 
meditator, yet unborn) ; so that as long as the world 
wags no welcome may be lacking to the mirth and 
melody, jigging and joustling, 

"For the honour of Arthur o' Bradley, 
O rare Arthur <?' Bradley, 
O brave Arthur 0' Bradley, 
Arthur 0' Bradley. 0\" 



172 Arthur d Bradley. 

Having relieved our feelings, for once, we resume the 
sober duties of Annotation in a chastened spirit : — 

In Merry Drollery Compleat, Reprint (Appendix, p. 
401), we gave the full quotation from a Sixteenth Century 
Interlude, The Contract of Marriage between Wit and 
Wisdom, the point being this : — 

" For the honour of Artrebradley, 
This age tuould make me sivear madly ! " 

Arthur o' Bradley is mentioned by Thomas Dekker, 
near the end of the first part of his Honest Whore, 1604; 
when Bellafront, assuming to be mad, hears that Mattheo 
is to marry her, she exclaims — 

" Shall he ? O brave Arthur 0/ Bradley, then ?" 

In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, 1614, (which covers 
the Puritans with ridicule, for the delight of James 1st.), 
Act ii. Scene 1, when Adam Overdo, the Sectary, is dis- 
guised in a "garded coat" as Arthur o' Bradley, to 
gesticulate outside a booth, Mooncalf salutes him thus : — 
" O Lord ! do you not know him, Mistress ? 'tis mad 
Arthur of Bradley that makes the orations. — Brave 
master, old Arthur of Bradley, how do you do ? Wel- 
come to the Fair ! When shall we hear you again, to 
handle your matters, ivith your back against a booth, ha?" 

In Richard Brathwaite's Strappado for the Diuell, 1615, 
p. 225 (in a long poem, containing notices of Wakefield, 
Bradford, and Kendall, addressed " to all true-bred Nor- 
therne Sparks, of the generous Society of the Cottoneers," 
&c.) is the following reference to this tune, and to other 
two, viz. "Wilson's Delight," and Mai Dixon's Round:" 

" So each (through peace of conscience) rapt ivith pleasure 
Shall ioifully begin to dance his measure. 
One footing acliuely Wilson's delight, .... 



Arthur d 1 Bradley. 173 

The fourth is chanting of his Notes so gladly, 
Keeping the tune for th' honour of Arthur a Bradly ; 
The 5[th] so pranke he scarce can stand on ground, 
Asking ivho'le sing zvith him Mai Dixon's round." 

(By the way: The same author, Richard Brathwaite, in 
his amusing Shepherds Tales, 1621, p. 211, mentions as 
other Dance-tunes, 

Roundelayes, \\ \r\s\\-hayes, 

Cogs and rongs and Peggie Ramsie, 
Spaniletto || The Venetto, 

John come kisse me, Wilson's Fancie.) 

Again, Thomas Gayton writes concerning the hero : — 
" 'Tis not alwaies sure that 'tis merry in hall ivhen beards 
Wag all, for these men's beards wagg'd as fast as they 
could tag 'em, but mov'd no mirth at all : They were 
verifying- that song of — 

Heigh, brave Arthur o' Bradley, 
A beard ivithout hair looks madly." 

( Festi'vous Notes on Don Quixot, 1654, p. 141.) 

On pp. 540, 604, of William ChappelPs excellent work, 
The Popular Music of the Olden Time, are given two 
tunes, one for the Antidote version, and the other for 
the modern, as sung by Taylor, " Come neighbours, and 
listen a while." He quotes the two lines from Gayton, 
and also this from Wm. Wycherley's Gentleman Dancing 
Master, 1673, Act i, Sc. 2, where Gerrard says : — 
"Sing him 'Arthur of Bradley,' or ' I am the Duke of 
Norfolk.'" 

It is quite evident, from such passages, that during a 
long time a proverbial and popular character attached to 
this noisy personage : such has not yet passed away. The 
earliest complete imprint of " Arthur o' Bradley " as a 
Song, (from a printed original, of 1656, beginning "All 



174 Arthur <?' Bradley. 

you that desire to merry be") in our present Appendix, 
Part iv. Quite distinct from this hitherto unnoticed ex- 
amplar, not already reprinted, is "Saiu you not Pierce, 
the piper" &c, the ballad reproduced by us, from 
Merry Drollery, 1661, Part 2nd., p. 124, (and ditto, 
Compleat 1670, 1691, p. 312); which agrees with the 
Antidote against Melancholy, same date, 1661, p. 16. 
More than a Century later, an inferior rendering was com- 
mon, printed on broadsheets. It was mentioned, in 1797, 
by Joseph Ritson, as being a "much more modern ballad 
[than the Antidote version] upon this popular subject, in 
the same measure intitled Arthur o' Bradley, and begin- 
ning ' All in the merry month of May.' " (Robin Hood, 
1797, ii. 211.) Of this we already gave two verses, (in 
Appendix to M. Drollery C, p. 400), but as we believe 
the ballad has not been reprinted in this century, we may 
give all that is extant, from the only copy within reach, 
of Arthur o' Bradley : — 

"All in the merry month of May, 

The maids [ they ivill be gay, 

For ] a May-pole they ivill have, &c. 

(See the present Appendix, Part iv.) 

In this, doubtless, we detect two versions, garbed to- 
gether. What is now the final verse is merely a variation 
of the sixth : probably the broadsheet-printer could not 
meet with a genuine eighth verse. Robert Bell denounced 
the whole as "a miserable composition" ( even as he had 
declared against the amatory Lyrics of Charles the 
Second's time ): but then, he might have added, with 
Goldsmith, "My Bear dances to none but the werry 
genteelest of tunes." 

Far superior to this was the "Arthur o' Bradley's 
Wedding : 

" Come, neighbours, and listen aivhile, 
If ever you ivished to smile," &c, 



Arthur d Bradley. 175 

which was sung by . . . Taylor, a comic actor, about the 
beginning of this century. It is not improbable that he 
wrote or adapted it, availing himself of such traditional 
scraps as he could meet with. Two copies of it, duplicate, 
on broadsheets, are in the Douce Collection at Oxford, 
vol. iv. pp. 18, 19. A copy, also, in J. H. Dixon's Bds. and 
Sgs. of the Peasantry, Percy Soc, 1845, v °l« xv ii- (and in 
R. B.'s Annotated Ed. B. P., p. 138.) 

There is still another "Arthur o' Bradley," but not 
much can, or need, be said in its favour; except that it 
contains only three verses. Yet even these are more 
than two which can be spared. Its only tolerable lines 
are borrowed from the Roxburghe Ballad. It is the nadir 
of Bradleyism, and has not even a title, beyond the burden 
" O rare Arthur o' Bradley, /" Let us, briefly, be in 
at the death : although Arthur makes not a Swan-like 
end, with the help of his Catnach poet. It begins thus : 

' Tivas in the sweet month of May, I ivalked out to take 

the air, 
My Father he died one day, and he left me his son and heir; 
He left me a good ivarm house, that ivanted only a 

thatch, 
A strong oak door to my chamber, that only ivanted a 

latch ; 
He left me a rare old coiv, I ivish he'd have left me a sotu, 
A cock that in fighting ivas shy, and a horse ivith a sharp 

ivall eye, &c. 

(Universal Songster, 1826, i. 368.) 

Even Ophelia could not ask, after Arthur sinking so low, 
"And will he not come again ?" 

September, 1875. J. W. E. 



176 



[So far as possible, to give completeness to our Reprint of West- 
minster Drollery of 167 1-2, and Merry Drollery, Compleat, 1670- 
1691, we now add the Extra Songs belonging to the former work, 
edition 1674 ; and to the latter, in its earlier edition, 1661 : with 
their respective title-pages.] 



Westminster 



Wejlminjler- Drollery. 

Or, A Choice 

COLLECTION 

of the Newest 

SONGS & POEMS 

BOTH AT 

Coujrt anir C&eatersu 

BY 

A Person of Quality. 



The third Edition, with many more 
Additions. 



LONDON, 

Printed for H. Brome, at the Gtm in St. Paul's 

Church Yard, near the West End. 

MDCLXXIV. 



179 
ADDITIONAL SONGS 

FROM THE 

Westminster-Drollery : 

Edition 1674. 



A Song. [ P . in.] 

I. ^^ O wretched are the sick of Love, 
viy No Herb has vertue to remove 
The growing ill : 
But still, 
The more we Remedies oppose 
The Feaver more malignant grows. 

Doubts do but add unto desire, 
Like Oyl that's thrown upon the fire, 
Which serves to make the flame aspire ; 
And not t' extinguish it : 
Love has its trembling, and its burning fit. 

N 2 






180 Additional Songs, from the 

2. Fruition which the sick propose [ p . n 2 .] 
To end, and recompence their woes, 

But turns them o're 
To more. 
And curing one, does but prepare 
A new, perhaps a greater care. 

Enjoyment even in the chaste, 
Pleases, not satisfies the taste, 
And licens'd Love the worst can fast. 
Such is the Lovers state, 
Pining and pleas'd, alike unfortunate. 

3. Sabina and Camilla share 
An equal interest in care, 

Fear hath each brest 
Possest. 
In different Fortunes, one pure flame 
Makes their unhappiness the same. 

Love begets fear, fear grief creates, 
Passion still passion animates, 
Love will be love in all estates : 
His power still is one 
Whether in hope or in possession. 

A 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674 



A Song. [. p . it 3 .] 



1. r I ^O Arms ! to Arms ! the Heroes cry, 
X A glorious Death, or Victory. 
Beauty and Love, although combin'd, 

And each so powerful alone, 
Cannot prevail against a mind 

Bound up in resolution. 
Tears their weak influence vainly prove, 
Nothing the daring breast can move 
Honour is blind, and deaf, ev'n deaf to Love. 

2. The Field ! the Field ! where Valour bleeds, 
Spurn'd into dust by barbed steeds, 

Instead of wanton Beds of Down 

Is now the Scene where they must try, 
To overthrow, or be o'rethrown ; 

Bravely to overcome, or dye. 
Honour in her interest sits above 
What Beauty, Prayers, or tears can move 
Were there no Honour, there would be no Love. 



1 82 Additional Songs, from the 



[ P . 114.] A Song. 

1. r) Eauty that it self can kill, 

_LJ Through the finest temper'd steel, 
Can those wounds she makes endure, 

And insult it o're the brave, 
Since she knows a certain cure, 
When she is dispos'd to save : 
But when a Lover bleeding lies, 

Wounded by other Arms, 

And that she sees those harms, 

For which she knows no remedies ; 

Then Beauty Sorrows livery wears, 

And whilst she melts away in tears, 

Drooping in Sorrow shews 

Like Roses overcharg'd with morning dews. 

2. Nor do women, though they wear 
The most tender character, 

Suffer in this case alone : 

Hearts enclos'd with Iron Walls, 
In humanity must groan 

When a noble Hero falls. 



Pitiless 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674 183 

Pitiless courage would not be [p. 115.] 

An honour, but a shame ; 
Nor bear the noble name 
Of valour, but barbarity ; 
The generous even in success 
Lament their enemies distress : 
And scorn it should appear 
Who are the Conquer'd, with the Conqueror. 



A Song. 

1. r I ^He young, the fair, the chaste, the good, 
J- The sweet Camilla, in a flood 
Of her own Crimson lies 
A bloody, bloody sacrifice 
To Death and man's inhumane cruelties. 
Weep Virgins till your sorrow swells 
In tears above the Ivory Cells 

That guard those Globes of light ; 
Drown, drown those beauties of your eyes. 
Beauty should mourn, when beauty dies ; 
And make a general night, 
To pay her innocence its Funeral rite. 

N 4 2. Death 



184 Additional Songs, from the 

2. Death since his Empire first begun, [p. n6.] 

So foul a conquest never won, 

Nor yet so fair a prize : 
And had he had a heart, or eyes, 
Her beauties would have charm'd his cruelties. 
Even Savage Beasts will Beauty spare, 
Chaft Lions fawn upon the fair ; [Fierce Lions] 

Nor dare offend the chaste : 
But vitious man, that sees and knows 
The mischiefs his wild fury does, 
Humours his passions haste, 
To prove ungovem'd man the greatest beast. 



A Song. 

1. T T Ow frailty makes us to our wrong 

A A Fear, and be loth to dye, 
When Life is only dying long 

And Death the remedy ! 

We shun eternity, 
A nd still would gravel her beneath, [Sal., grovel] 

Though still in woe and strife, 
When Life's the path that leads to Death, 

And Death the door to Life. 

2. The 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 185 

2. The Fear of Death is the disease [p. 117.] 

Makes the poor patient smart ; 
Vain apprehensions often freeze 

The vitals in the heart, 

Without the dreaded Dart. 
When fury rides on pointed steel 

Death's fear the heart doth seize, 
Whilst in that very fear we feel 

A greater sting than his. 

3. But chaste Camilla 's vertuous fear 

Was of a noble kind, 
Not of her end approaching near 

But to be left behind, 

From her dear Love disjoyn'd ; 
When Death in courtesie decreed, 

To make the fair his prize, 
And by one cruelty her freed 

From humane cruelties. 

CHORUS. 

Thus heav'n does his will disguise, 
To scourge our curiosities, 
When too inquisitive we grow 
Of what we are forbid to know. 

Fond 



1 86 Additional Songs, from the 

Fond humane nature that will try [p. n8.] 

To sound th' Abiss of Destiny ! 

Alas ! what profit can arise 

From those forbidden scrutinies, 

When Oracles what they foretel 

In such ^Enigma's still conceal, 

That self indulging man still makes 

Of deepest truths most sad mistakes ! 

Or could our frailty comprehend 

The reach those riddles do intend : 

What boots it us when we have done, 

To foresee ills we cannot shun ? 

But 'tis in man a vain pretence, 

To know or prophesie events, 

Which only execute, and move, 

By a dependence from above. 

'Tis all imposture to deceive 

The foolish and inquisitive, 

Since none foresee what shall befal, 

But providence that governs all. 

Reason wherewith kind Heav'n has blest 

His creature man above the rest, 

Will teach humanity to know 

All that it should aspire unto ; 

And whatsoever fool relies 

On false deceiving prophesies, 

Striving by conduct to evade 

The harms they threaten, or perswade, Too 



Westminster-Drollery, i6y4. 187 

Too frequently himself does run [ p. 119.] 

Into the danger he would shun, 

And pulls upon himself the woe 

Fate meant he should much later know. 

By such delusions vertue strays 

Out of those honourable ways 

That lead unto that glorious end, 

To which the noble ever bend. 

Whereas if vertue were the guide, 

Mens minds would then be fortified 

With constancy, that would declare 

Against supineness, and despair. 

We should events with patience wait, 

And not despise, nor fear our Fate. 



WICK- 



1 88 Additional Songs, from the 

[P. 1 20.] 

W I CKHAM WAKENED , 

OR 

The Quakers Madrigall In Rime 
Dogrell. 

THe Quaker and his Brats, 
Are born with their Hats, 

Which a point with two Taggs, 

T/s fast to their Craggs, 

Nor King nor Kesar, 

To such Knaves as these are, 
Do signifle more than* a Tinker. 

His rudeness and pride 

So puffs up his hide 
That He's drunk though he be no drinker. 

Chorus. 

Now since Mayor and Justice 

Are assured that thus 'tis 
To abate their e?icrease and redundance 

Let us send them to WI CKHA M 

Fen' there's o?ie will kick 'um 
Into much better manners by abundance. 

Once 



Westminster-Drollery. 1674. 189 

Once the Clown at his entry 

Kist his golls to the Gentry : 

When the Lady took upon her, 

'Twas God save your Honor : 

But now Lord and Pesant, 

Do make but one messe on't 
Then farewel distinction 'twixt Plowman and Knight. 

If the world be thus tost 

The old Proverb is crost, 
For Joan's as good as my Lady in th' Light. 

Chorus. 
Now since Mayor a?id Justice, &>c. 

'Tis the Gentry that Lulls 'um 

While the Quaker begulls 'um : 

They dandle 'um in their Lapps, 

Who should strike of[f] their Capps ; 

And make 'um stand bare 

Both to Justice and Mayor, 
Till when 'twill nere be faire weather ; 

For now the proud Devel 

Hath brought forth this Level 
None Knows who and who is together. 

Now since Mayor and Justice, &c. 

Now 



190 Additional Songs, from the 

Now silence and listen [p. 122.] 

Thou shalt hear how they Christen : 

Mother Midnight comes out 

With the Babe in a Clout, 

Tis Rachell you must know tis, 

Good friends all take notice, 
Tis a name from the Scripture arising. 

And thus the dry dipper 

(Twere a good deed to whip her) 
Makes a Christning without a Baptizing. 

Now since Mayor and Justice, &°<r. 

Their wedlocks are many, 

But Marriages not any, 

For they and their dull Sows, 

Like the Bulls and the mull Cows, 
Do couple in brutify'd fashion : 

But still the Official, 

Declares that it is all 
Matrimoniall Fornication. 

Now since Mayor and Justice, &c. 

Their Lands and their Houses 
Wont fall to their Spouses : 
They cannot appoint her 
One Turff for a Joynter. 

His 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 191 

His son and his daughter, [p. 123.] 

Will repent it hereafter ; 
For when the Estate is divided ; 

For the Parents demerit 

Some Kinsman will inherit ; 
Why then let them marry as I did. 

But since Mayor and Justice, &>c. 

Now since these mad Nations 

Do cheat their relations, 

Pray what better hap then 

Can we that are Chap men, 

Expect from their Canting, 

The sighing and panting ? 
We are they use the house with a steeple, 

And then they may Cozen 

All us by the Dozen ; 
For Israel may spoyle Pharaohs people. 

Now since Mayor and Justice, &c. 

The Quaker who before 
Did rant and did roare ; 
Great thrift will now tell yee on. 
But it tends to Rebellion : 
For his tipling being don, 
He hath bought him a gun 

Which 



192 Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 

Which hee saves from his former vain spending. 

O be drunk agen Quaker, [p. 124.] 

Take thy Canniken and shake her, 
For thou art the worse for the mending. 

Now since Mayor and Justice, &c. 

Then looke we about, 

And give them a Rout, 

Before they Encumber 

The Land with their number : 

There can be no peace in 

These Vermins encreasing ; 
For tis plaine to all prudent beholders, 

That while we neglect, 

They do but expect 
A new head to their old mans Shoulders. 

Now since Mayor and Justice 

Are assured that thus "'tis : 
To abate their encrease and redundance 

Let us send them to WI CKHA M 

For there's one will Kick } um 
Into much better manners by abundance. 

[Here ends the 1674 edition; for account of which, and the 
1 66 1 Merry Drollery, see our present Appendix, Parts Third 
and Fourth.] 

MERRY 



MERRY 

DROLLERY, 

OR, 

A COLLECTION 

, Jovial Poems, 
Of ) Merry Songs, 
( Witty Drolleries. 

Intermixed with Pleasant 
Catches. 

The First Part. 

Collected by 
W.N. C.B. R.S. J.G. 

Lovers of Wit. 

[is. 3d.] 

LONDON, 

Printed by J. W. for P. H. and are to 

be Sold at the New Exchange, Westminster- 

Hall, Fleet Street, and Pauls 

Church- Yard. [May 

1661.] 

o 






EXTRA SONGS & POEMS, 



IN 



Merry Drollery, 1661 : 

(Omitted from the Editions of 1670, 1691, when 
New Songs were substituted for them.) 

L— IN PART FIRST. 



A Puritan. [fol. 2.] 

A Puritan of late, 
And eke a holy Sister, 
A Catechizing sate, 
And fain he would have kist her 
For his Mate. 

But she a Babe of grace, 
A Child of reformation, 
Thought kissing a disgrace, 
A Limbe of prophanation 
In that place. 



He 



o 2 



196 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

He swore by yea and nay [fol. 2b.] 

He would have no denial, 
The Spirit would it so, 
She should endure a tryal 
Ere she go. 

Why swear you so, quoth she ? 
Indeed, my holy Brother, 
You might have forsworn be 
Had it been to another [,] 
Not to me. 

He laid her on the ground, 

His Spirits fell a ferking, 

Her Zeal was in a sound, [i.e. swoon,] 

He edified her Merkin 

Upside down. 

And when their leave they took, 
And parted were asunder, 
My Muse did then awake, 
And I turn'd Ballad-monger 
For their sake. 



Loves 



Merry Dr oiler ie, 1661. 197 

Loves Dream. [page u.] 

I Dreamt my Love lay in her bed, 
It was my chance to take her, 
Her arms and leggs abroad were spread, 
She slept, I durst not wake her ; 
O pitty it were, that one so rare 
Should crown her head with willow : 
The Tresses of her golden hair 
Did crown her lovely Pillow. \al. lect., Did kisse] 

Me thought her belly was a hill 
Much like a mount of pleasure, 
At foot thereof there springs a well, 
The depth no man can measure ; 
About the pleasant Mountain head 
There grows a lofty thicket, 
Whither two beagles travelled 
To rouze a lively Pricket. 

They hunted him with chearful cry 
About that pleasant Mountain, 
Till he with heat was forc'd to fly 
And slip into that Fountain ; 
The Dogs they follow'd to the brink, 
And there at him they baited': 

They plunged about and would not sink, [p. 12.] 

His coming out they waited. Then 

o 3 



198 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Then forth he came as one half lame, 

All very faint and tired, 

Betwixt her legs he hung his head, 

As heavy heart desired \ 

My dogs then being refresht again, 

And she of sleep bereaved, 

She dreamt she had me in her arms, 

And she was not deceived. 



The good Old Cause. 



NOw Lamberts sunk, and valiant M- — [Monk] 
Does ape his General Cromwel, 
And Arthur's Court, cause time is short, 

Does rage like devils from hell ; 
Let's mark the fate and course of State, 

Who rises when t'other is sinking, 
And believe when this is past 
'Twill be our turn at last 
To bring the Good Old Cause by drinking. 

First, red nos'd Nol he swallowed all, 

His colour shew'd he lov'd it : 
But Dick his Son, as he were none, 

Gav't off, and hath reprov'd it ; 

But 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 199 

But that his foes made bridge of s nose, 
And cry'd him down for a Protector, 

Proving him to be a fool that would undertake to rule 
And not drink and right like Hector. 

The Grecian lad he drank like mad, [p. 13.J 

Minding no work above it ; 
And Sans question kill'd Ephestion 

Because he'd not approve it ; 
He got command where God had land, 

And like a Maudlin Yonker, 
When he tippled all and wept, he laid him down to 

Having no more Worlds to conquer. (sleep, 

Rump-Parliament would needs invent 

An Oath of abjuration, (fashion : 

But Obedience and Allegiance are now come into 

Then here's a boul with heart and soul 
To Charles, and let all say Amen to 't ; 

Though they brought the Father down 
From a triple Kingdom Crown, 

We'll drink the Son up again to 't. 



04 



200 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 



R 



A Song. 
I ding to London, on Dunstable way 



[p- 14J 



I met with a Maid on Midsummer day, 
Her Eyes they did sparkle like Stars in the sky, 
Her face it was fair, and her forehead was high : 
The more I came to her, the more I did view her, 
The better I lik'd her pretty sweet face, [p. 15.] 

I could not forbear her, but still I drew near her, 
And then I began to tell her my case : 

Whither walk'st thou, my pretty sweet soul ? 
She modestly answer'd to Hockley-iHJi-hole. 
I ask'd her her business ; she had a red cheek, 
She told me, she went a poor service to seek ; 
I said, it was pitty she should leave the City, 
And settle her self in a Country Town ; 
She said it was certain it was her hard fortune 
To go up a maiden, and so to come down. 

With that I alighted, and to her I stept, 

I took her by th' hand, and this pretty maid wept ; 

Sweet [,] weep not, quoth I : I kist her soft lip ; 

I wrung her by th' hand, and my finger she nipt ; 

So long there I woo'd her, such reasons I shew'd her, 

That she my speeches could not controul, 

But cursied finely, and got up behind me, 

And back she rode with me to Hockley-? -tli -hole. 

When 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 201 

When I came to Hockley at the sign of the Cock, 

By [a]lighting I chanced to see her white smock, 

It lay so alluring upon her round knee, 

I call'd for a Chamber immediately ; 

I hugg'd her, I tugg'd her, I kist her, I smugg'd her, 

And gently I laid her down on a bed, 

With nodding and pinking, with sighing & winking, 

She told me a tale of her Maidenhead. 

While she to me this story did tell, 
I could not forbear, but on her I fell ; 
I tasted the pleasure of sweetest delight, [p- 16.] 

We took up our lodging, and lay there all night ; 
With soft arms she roul'd me, and oft times told me, 
She loved me deerly, even as her own soul : 
But on the next morrow we parted with sorrow, 
And so I lay with her at Hockley-? th? -hole. 



Maidens delight. [p- 27.] 

A Young man of late, that lackt a mate, 
And courting came unto her, 
With Cap, and Kiss, and sweet Mistris, 
But little could he do her ; 

Quoth 



202 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Quoth she, my friend, let kissing end, 
Where with you do me smother, 
And run at Ring with t'other thing : 

A little o' th t'on with t'other. 

Too much of ought is good for nought, 
Then leave this idle kissing ; 
Your barren suit will yield no fruit 
If the other thing be missing : 
As much as this a man may kiss 
His sister or his mother ; 
He that will speed must give with need 
A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

Who bids a Guest unto a feast, 

To sit by divers dishes, 

They please their mind untill they find 

Change, please each Creatures wishes ; 

With beak and bill I have my fill, 

With measure running over ; 

The Lovers dish now do I wish, 

A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

To gull me thus, like Tantalus, 

To make me pine with plenty, 

With shadows store, and nothing more, [p- 28.] 

Your substance is so dainty ; 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 203 

A fruitless tree is like to thee, 
Being but a kissing lover, 
With leaves joyn fruit, or else be mute ; 
A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

Sharp joyn'd with flat, no mirth to that ; 
A low note and a higher, 
Where Mean and Base keeps time and place, 
Such musick maids desire : 
All of one string doth loathing bring, 
Change, is true Musicks Mother, 
Then leave my face, and sound the base, 
A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

The golden mine lies just between [? golden mean] 

The high way and the lower ; 
He that wants wit that way to hit 
Alas [!] hath little power; 
You'l miss the clout if that you shoot 
Much higher, or much lower : 
Shoot just between, your arrows keen, 
A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

No smoake desire without a fire, 
No wax without a Writing : 
If right you deal give Deeds to Seal, 
And straight fall to inditing ; 

Thus 



204 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Thus do I take these lines I make, 

As to a faithful Lover, 

In order he'll first write, then seal, 

A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 

Thus while she staid the young man plaid [p. 29.] 

Not high, but low. defending ; [ ? descending ; ] 

Each stroak he strook so well she took, 
She swore it was past mending ; 
Let swaggering boys that think by toyes 
Their Lovers to fetch over, 
Lip-labour save, for the maids must have 
A little o' th' t'on with t'other. 



A Song. [p- 32.] 

A Young man walking all alone 
Abroad to take the air, 
It was his chance to meet a maid 
Of beauty passing fair : 
Desiring her of curtesie 
Down by him for to sit ; 
She answered him most modestly, 
O nay, O nay not yet. 

Forty 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 205 

Forty Crowns I will give thee, 
Sweet heart, in good red Gold, 
If that thy favour I may win 
With thee for to be bold : 
She answered him with modesty, 
And with a fervent wit, 
Think'st thou I'll stain my honesty ? 
O nay, O nay not yet. 

Gold and silver is but dross, [p. 33-1 

And worldly vanity ; 
There's nothing I esteem so much 
As my Virginity ; 

What do you think I am so loose, [ai. lect., mad] 

And of so little wit, 
As for to lose my maidenhead ? 
O nay, O nay not yet. 

Although our Sex be counted base, 
And easie to be won, 
You see that I can find a check 
Dame Natures Games to shun ; 
Except it be in modesty, 
That may become me fit, 
Think'st I am weary of my honesty ? 
O nay, O nay not yet 

The 



T erry Dr oiler ze, 1661. 

The young man stood in such a dump, 

Not giving no more words, 

He gave her that in quietness 

Which love to maids affords : 

The maid was ta'n as in a trance, 

And such a sudden fit, 

As she had almost quite forgot 

Her nay, O nay not yet. 

The way to win a womans love 
Is only to be brief, 
And give her that in quietness 
Will ease her of her grief : 
For kindness they will not refuse 
When young men proffer it, 
Although their common speeches be 
O nay, O nay not yet. 



Admiral Deans Funeral 
i. 



[p. 56.] 



Nick Culpepper, and William Lilly, 
Though you were pleas'd to say they were silly, 
Yet something these prophesi'd true, I tell you, [? ye,] 
Which no body can deny. 



2, 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 207 



In the month of May, I tell you truly, 
Which neither was in June nor July, 
The Dutch began to be unruly, 

Which no body can deny, 

3> 
Betwixt our England and their Holland, 
Which neither was in France nor Poland, 
But on the Sea, where there was no Land, 
Which no body can deny. 

4- 
They joyn'd the Dutch, and the English Fleet, 
[In] Our Authors opinion then they did meet, 
Some saw't that never more shall see't, 
Which no body can deny, 

5- 
There were many mens hearts as heavy as lead, [p-57-3 
Yet would not believe Dick Dean to be dead, 
Till they saw his Body take leave of his head, 
Which no body can deny. 

6. 

Then after the sad departure of him, 
There was many a man lost a Leg or a Lim, 
And many were drown'd 'cause they could not swim, 
Which no body can deny. One 



208 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

7- 
One cries, lend me thy hand [,] good friend, 
Although he knew it was to no end, 
I think, quoth he, I am going to the Fiend, 
Which no body can deny. 

8. 
Some, 'twas reported, were kilPd with a Gun, 
And some stood that knew not whether to run, 
There was old taking leave of Father and Son, 
Which no body can deny, 

9- 
There's a rumour also, if we may believe, 
We have many gay Widdows now given to grieve, 
'Cause unmannerly Husbands ne'er came to take 

Which no body can deny. (leave, 

10. 
The Ditty is sad of our Deane to sing ; 
To say truth, it was a pittiful thing 
To take off his head and not leave him a ring. 
Which no body can deny. 

11. 
From Greenwich toward the Bear at Bridge foot 
He was wafted with wind that had water to't, 
But I think they brought the devil to boot, 

Which no body can deny. The 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 209 

12. 

The heads on London Bridge upon Poles, [p. 58.] 

That once had bodies, and honester soules 
Than hath the Master of the Roules, 
Which no body can deny, 

13- 

They grieved for this great man of command, 
Yet would not his head amongst theirs should stand ; 
He dy'd on the Water, and they on the Land, 
Which no body can deny. 

14. 
I cannot say, they look'd wisely upon him, 
Because people cursed that parcel was on him ; 
He has fed fish and worms, if they do not wrong him, 
Which no body can deny. 

The Old Swan, as he passed by, 
Said, she would sing him a dirge, and lye down & die : 
Wilt thou sing to a bit of a body, quoth I ? 
Which no body can deny. 

16. 
The Globe on the bank, I mean, on the Ferry, 
Where Gentle and simple might come & be merry, 
Admired at the change from a Ship to a Wherry, 

Which no body can deny. 17. 

p 



2io Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

*7- 
Tom Godfreys Bears began for to roare, 
Hearing such moans one side of the shore. 
They knew they should never see Dean any more, 
Which no body can deny, 

18. 

Queenhithe, Pauls-Wharf, and the Fryers also, 
Where now the Players have little to do, 
Let him pass without any tokens of woe, 

Which no body can deny. 

LP- 59-1 

19. (names, 

Quoth th' Students o'th 7 Temple, I know not their 

Looking out of their Chambers into the Thames, 

The Barge fits him better than did the great James, 

Which no body can deny. 

20. 
Essex House, late called Cuckold's Hall, 
The Folk in the Garden staring over the wall, 
Said, they knew that once Pride would have a fall, 
Which no body can deny. 

21. 

At Strand Gate, a little farther then, 

Were mighty Guns numbred to sixty and ten, 

Which neither hurt Children, Women, nor Men, 

Which no body can deny. 22. 



Merry, Drollerie 1661. 211 

22. 
They were shot over times one, two, three, or four, 
'Tis thought one might 'heard th' bounce to th' Tower, 
Folk report, the din made the Buttermilk sower, 
Which no body can deny. 

2 3- 
Had old Goodman Lejithal or Allen but heard 'urn, 
The noise worse than Olivei's voice would 'fear'd 'um, 
And out of their small wits would have scar'd 'um. 

Which no body can deny. 

• 

24. 
Sommerset House, where once did the Queen lye, 
And afterwards Ireton in black, and not green, by, 
The Canon clattered the Windows really, 
Which no body can deny. 

25. 
The Savoys mortified spittled Crew, 
If I lye, as Falstaffe saies, I am a Jew, (spew, 

Gave the Hearse such a look it would make a man 
Which no body can deny. 

26. 

The House of S that Fool and Knave, [p- 60.] 

Had so much wit left lamentation to save 
From accompanying a traytorly Rogue to his grave, 
Which no body can deny. 27. 

p 2 



212 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

27. 
The Exchange, and the mines of Durham House eke, 
Wish'd such sights might be seen each day i' th' week, 
A Generals Carkass without a Cheek, 
Which no body can deny. 



The House that lately Great Buckinghams was, 
Which now Sir Thomas Fairfax has, 
Wish'd it might be Sir Thomas's fate so to pass, 
Which no body can deny. 

29. 
Howards House, Suffolks great Duke of Yore, 
Sent him one single sad wish, and no more, 
He might flote by Whitehall in purple gore, 
Which no body can deny. 

3°- 

Something I should of Whitehall say, 
But the Story is so sad, and so bad, by my fay, 
That it turns my wits another way, 
Which no body can deny. 

3 1 - 

To Westminster, to the Bridge of the Kings, 
The water the Barge, and the Barge-men [,] brings 
The small remain of the worst of things, 

Which no body can deny. 32. 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 213 

32. 
They interr'd him in triumph, like Lewis the eleven, 
In the famous Chappel of Henry the seven, 
But his soul is scarce gone the right way to heaven, 
Which no body can deny. 



A merrie Journey to France. [p- 64.] 

I Went from England into France, 
Not for to learn to sing nor dance, 
To ride, nor yet to fence, 
But for to see strange sights, as those 
That have return' d without a nose 

They carried away from hence. 

As I to Paris rode along, 
Like to John Dory in the Song, 

Upon a holy Tyde, 
Where I an ambling Nag did get, 
I hope he is not paid for yet, 

I spurr'd him on each side. 

First, to Saint Dennis then I came, 
To see the sights at Nostredame, 

The man that shews them snaffles : 
That who so list, may there believe 
To see the Virgin Maries Sleeve, 

And eke her odd Pantafles. [? old] 

p 3 The 



214 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

The breast-milk, and the very Gown 
That she did wear in Bethlehem Town, 

When in the Barn she lay : 
But men may think that is a Fable, [p. 65] 

For such good cloaths ne'er came in Stable 

Upon a lock of hay* 

No Carpenter can by his trade 
Have so much Coin as to have made 

A gown of such rich Stuff : 
But the poor fools must, for their credit, 
Believe, and swear old Joseph did it, 

'Cause he received enough, [al. led., deserv'd] 

There is the Lanthorn which the Jews, 
When Judas led them forth, did use, 

It weighs my weight down-right ; 
And then you must suppose and think 
The Jews therein did put a Link, 

And then 't was wondrous bright [? light] 

There is one Saint has lost his nose, 
Another his head, but not his toes, 

An elbow, and a thumb ; 
When we had seen those holy rags, 
We went to the Inne and took our Nags, 

And so away we come. 

We 



Merry Droller ie, 1661. 215 

We came to Paris, on the Seine, 
'Tis wondrous fair, but little clean, 

Tis Europes greatest Town : 
How strong it is I need not tell it, 
For every one may easily smell it 

As they ride up and down. 

There's many rare sights for to see, 
The Palace, the great Gallery, 

Place-Royal doth excell ; 
The Newbridge, and the Statute stairs, [p- 66.] 

At Rotterdam, Saint Christophers, E? Nostre Dame] 

The Steeple bears the Bell. 

For Arts, the University, 

And for old Cloaths, the Frippery, 

The Queen the same did build ; 
Saint Inru)cent\£\ whose earth devours 
Dead Corps in four and twenty hours, 

And there the King was kill'd. 

The Bastile, and Saint Dennis street, 
The Chastelet, like London Fleet ; 

The Arsenal is no toy ; 
But if you will see the pretty thing, 
Oh go to Court and see the King, 

Oh he is a hopeful boy. 



He 



P4 



2l6 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 



He is of all [his] Dukes and Peers 
Reverenc'd for wit as well as years ; 

Nor must you think it much 
That he with little switches play, 
And can make fine dirt-pies of Clay, 

O never King made such. 

Birds round about his Chamber stands. 
The which he feeds with his own hands, 

'Tis his humility : 
And if they want [for] any thing, 
They may but whistle to their King 

And he comes presently. 

A bird that can but catch a Fly, 

Or prate to please his Majesty, [ai. lect., doth please] 

It's known to every one ; 
The Duke De Guise gave him a Parrot, [p- 67] 

And he had twenty Cannons for it 

For his great Gallion. 

O that it e'er might be my hap 
To catch the bird that in the Map 

They call the Indian Chuck, 
I'd give it him, and hope to be 
As great and wise a man as he, 

Or else I had ill luck. 

Besides 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 217 

Besides, he hath a pretty firk, 
Taught him by Nature, for to work 

In Iron with much ease : 
And then uuto the Forge he goes, 
There he knocks, and there he blows, 

And makes both locks and Keys. 

Which puts a doubt in every one 
Whether he be Mars or Vulcans Son, 

For few believe his Mother : 
For his Incestuous House could not 
Have any Children, unless got 

By Uncle, or by Brother. 

Now for these virtues needs he must 
Intituled be Lewis the Just, 

Heneries Great Heir ; 
Where to his Stile we add more words, 
Better to call him King of Birds 

Than of the Great Navar. 

His Queen, she is a little Wench, 

Was born in Spain, speaks little French, 

Ne'er like to be a Mother : 
But let them all say what they will, [p. 68.] 

I do beleeve, and shall do still, 

As soon the one as t'other. 

Then 



218 Merry Drollerie, i66r. 

Then why should Lewis be so just, 

Contented be to take his lust [? he] 

With his lascivious Mate, 
Or suffer this his little Queen, 
From all her Sex that e'er had been, 

Thus to degenerate ? 

'Twere charity to have it known, 
Love other Children as his own 

To him it were no shame : 
For why should he near greater be 
Than was his Father Henery, 

Who, some say, did the same ? 



Englands Woe. [p. 85.] 

I Mean to speak of Englands sad fate, 
To help in mean time the King, and his Mate, 
That's ruled by an Antipodian State, 
Which no body can deny. 

But had these seditious times been when 
We had the life of wise Poet Ben, 
Parsons had never been Parliament men, 
Which no body can deny. 

Had 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 219 

Had Statesmen read the Bible throughout, 
And not gone by the Bible so round about, 
They would have ruled themselves without doubt, 
Which no body can deny. 

But Puritans now bear all the sway, 
They'll have no Bishops as most men say, 
But God send them better another day, 
Which no body can deny. 

Zealous Pryn has threatned a great downfall, 
To cut off long locks that is bushy and small, 
But I hope he will not take ears and all, 
Which no body can deny. 

JPrin, [and] Burton, saies women that's leud and loose, 
Shall wear no stallion locks for a bush, [Italian . . . abuse] 
They'll only have private boyes for theiruse, \pl Zec*.,Keyes] 
Which no body can deny. 

They'll not allow what pride it brings, [p. 86.] 

Nor favours in hats, nor no such things, 
They'l convert all ribbands to Bible strings, 
Which no body can deny. 

God bless our King and Parliament, 

And send he may make such K repent [Knaves] 

That breed our Land such discontent, 

Which no body can deny. And 



Merry D r oiler ie, 1661. 

And bless our Queen and Prince also, 
And all true Subjects both high and low, 
The brownings can pray for themselves you know, 
Which no body can deny. 



Ladies Delight. [p. 88.] 

HAng Chastity [!] it is for the milking pail, 
Ladies ought to be more valiant : 
Not to be confm'd in body and mind 

Is the temper of a right she Gallant ; 
Hither all you Amazons that are true 

To this famous Dildoe profession, 
She is no bonny Lass that fears to transgress 
The Act against Fornication. 

The Country Dame, that loves the old sport, 

Or delights in a new invention, 
May be fitted here, if they please to repair 

To this high ranting Convention ; 
If you are weary of your Coyn, 

Or of your Chastity, 
Here is costly toyes, or hot-metled boyes, 

That will ease you presently. 

Both 



Merry D r oiler ie, 1661. 221 

Both curious heads and wanton tailes 

May here have satisfaction ; 
Here is all kind of ware, that useful are 

For pride or provocation ; 
Here's Drugs to paint, or Powder to perfume, 

Or Ribbon of the best fashion ; 
Here's dainty meat will fit you for the feat 

Beyond all expectation. 

Here's curious patches to set out your faces, [p. 89.] 

And make you resemble the sky • 
Or here's looking-glasses to shew the poor Asses, 

Your Husbands, their destiny • 
Here's bawbles too to play withall, 

And some to stand in stead ; 
This place doth afford both for your brow, 

And stallions for your head. 

Old Ladies here may be reliev'd, 

If Ushers they do lack, 
Or if they'll not discharge their husbands at large, 

But grow foundred in the back ; 
Green visag'd Damsels, that are sick 

Of a troubled Maidenhead, 
May here, if they please, be cur'd of the disease 

And their green colours turn'd to red. 



The 



222 Merry Dr oiler ie> 1661. 



The Tyrannical Wife. [p- 95-] 

IT was a man, and a jolly old man, 
Come love me whereas I lay, 
And he would marry a fair young wife 
The clean contrary way. 

He woo'd her for to wed, to wed, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
And even she kickt him out of the bed 

The clean contrary way. 

Then for her dinner she looked due, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
Or else would make her husband rue 

The clean contrary way. 

She made him wash both dish and spoon, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
He had better a gone on his head to Rome 

The clean contrary way. 

She proved a gallant huswife soon, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
She was every morning up by noon 

The clean contrary way, 

She 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 223 

She made him go to wash and wring, [p. 9 6 -] 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
And every day to dance and sing 

The clean contrary way. 

She made him do a worse thing than this, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
To father a child was none of his, 

The clean contrary way. 

Hard by a bush, and under a brier, % 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
I saw a holy Nun lye under a Frier 

The clean contrary way. 

To end my Song I think it long, 

Come love me whereas I lay, 
Come give me some drink and I'll be gone 

The clean contrary way. 



The Tinker. [p. 134J 

[ Some of these verses are evidently misplaced r We keep them 
unchanged, but add side-notes to rectify.] 

THere was a Lady in this Land 
That lov'd a Gentleman, 
And could not have him secretly. 

As she would now and then,, Till 



224 Merry D r oiler ie, 1661. 

Till she devis'd to dress him like 

A Tinker in Vocation : 
And thus, disguis'd, she bid him say, 

He came to clout her Cauldron. 

His face full fair she smother's black [2.] 

That he might not be known, 
A leather Jerkin on his back, [p. 135.] 

His breeches rent and torn ; 
With speed he passed to the place, 

To knock he did not spare : 
Who's that, quoth the lady ['s Porter] then, 

That raps so rashly there. 

I am a Tinker, then quoth he, [3.] 

That worketh for my Fee, 
If you have Vessels for to mend, 

Then bring them unto me : 
For I have brass within my bag, 

And target in my Apron, 
And with my skill I can well clout, 

And mend a broken Cauldron. 

Quoth she, our Cauldron hath most need, [? verse 7.] 

At it we will begin, 
For it will hold you half an hour 

To trim it out and in : 

But 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 225 

But first give me a glass of drink, 

The best that we do use. 
For why [,] it is a Tinkers guise 

No good drink to refuse. 

Then to the Brew-house hyed they fast, [? verse 8.] 

This broken piece to mend, 
He said he would no company, 

His Craft should not be kend, 
But only to your self, he said, 

That must pay me my Fee : 
I am no common Tinker, 

But work most curiously. 

And I also have made a Vow, C ? verse 9. p. 136.] 

I'll keep it if I may, 
There shall no mankind see my work, 

That I may stop or stay : 
Then barred he the Brew-house door, 

The place was very dark, 
He cast his Budget from his back, 

And frankly fell to work. 

And whilst he play'd and made her sport, [? verse 10.] 

Their craft the more to hide, 
She with his hammer stroke full hard 

Against the Cauldron side : 

Which 



226 



Merry Drollerie y 1661. 



Which made them all to think, and say, 
The Tinker wrought apace, 

And so be sure he did indeed, 
But in another place. 

The Porter went into the house, 

Where Servants us'd to dine,. 
Telling his Lady, at the Gate 

There staid a Tinker fine : 
Quoth he, much Brass he wears about,. 

And Target in his Apron, 
Saying, that he hath perfect skill 

To mend your broken Cauldron. 

Quoth she, of him we have great need, 

Go Porter, let him in, 
If he be cunning in his Craft 

He shall much money win : 
But wisely wist she who he was, 

Though nothing she did say, 
For in that sort she pointed him 

To come that very day. 



[? verse 4.] 



[? verse 5. J 



f 

i 



1' 



When he before the Lady came, 

Disguised stood he there, 

He blinked blithly, and did say, 

God save you Mistris fair ; 



[? verse 6. p> 137J 



Thou'rt 



Merry Drollerie, 1661, 227 

Thou'rt welcome, Tinker, unto me, 

Thou seem'st a man of skill,, 
AH broken Vessels for to mend, 

Though they be ne'er so ill ; 
I am the best man of my Trade, 

Quoth he, in all this Town, 
For any Kettle, Pot, or Pan, 

Or clouting of a Cauldron. 

Quoth he, fair Lady, unto her, [verse uj, 

My business I have ended, 
Go quickly now, and tell your Lord 

The Cauldron I have mended 1 
As for the Price, that I refer 

Whatsoever he do say, 
Then come again with diligence, 

I would I were away. 

The Lady went unto her Lord, [12.] 

Where he walkt up and down, 
Sir, I have with the Tinker been, 

The best in all the Town : 
His work he doth exceeding well, 

Though he be wondrous dear,. 
He asks no less than half a Mark 

For that he hath done here, 



Quoth 



Q 2 






228 Merry D r oiler ie, 1661. 

Quoth he, that Target is full dear, [13] 

I swear by Gods good Mother : 
Quoth she, my Lord, I dare protest, 

'Tis worth five hundred other ; 
He strook it in the special place, [p. 138.] 

Where greatest need was found, 
Spending his brass and target both, 

To make it safe and sound. 

Before all Tinkers in the Land, 

That travels up and down, 
Ere they should earn a Groat of mine, 

This man should earn a Crown : 
Or were you of his Craft so good, 

And none but I it kend, 
Then would it save me many a Mark, 

Which I am fain to spend. 

The Lady to her Coffer went, 

And took a hundred Mark, 
And gave the Tinker for his pains, 

That did so well his work ; 
Tinker, said she, take here thy fee, 

Sith here you'll not remain, 
But I must have my Cauldron now 

Once scoured o'er again. 

Then 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 229 

Then to the former work they went, 

No man could them deny ; 
The Lady said, good Tinker call 

The next time thou com'st by : 
For why [,] thou dost thy work so well, 

And with so good invention, 
If still thou hold thy hand alike, 

Take here a yearly Pension. 

And ev'ry quarter of the year 

Our Cauldron thou shalt view ; 
Nay, by my faith, her Lord gan say, [p. 139J 

I'd rather buy a new ; 
Then did the Tinker take his leave 

Both of the Lord and Lady, 
And said, such work as I can do, 

To you I will be ready. 
From all such Tinkers of the trade 

God keep my Wife, I pray, 
That comes to clout her Cauldron so, 

I'll swinge him if I may. 



[ A song follows, beginning " There were three birds that built 
very low.'' With other four, commencing respectively on pp. 146, 
153, 161, and 168, it is degraded from position here; for sub- 
stantial reasons ; and (with a few others, afterwards to be specified,) 
given separately. Nothing but the absolute necessity of making 
this a genuine Antiquarian Reprint, worthy of the confidence of 
all mature students of our Early Literature, compels the Editor to 

admit 

Q3 



230 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

admit such prurient and imbecile pieces at all. They are tokens 
of a debased taste that would be inconceivable, did we not re- 
member that, not more than twenty years ago, crowds of MP.s, 
Lawyers, and Baronets listened with applause, and encored tu- 
multuously, songs far more objectionable than these (if possible) 
in London Music Halls, and Supper Rooms. Those who recol- 
lect what R . . s sang (such as " The Lock of Hair," " My name 

it is Sam Hall, Chimbley Sweep," &c), and what " Judge N " 

said at his Jury Court, need not be astonished at anything which 
was sung or written in the days of the Commonwealth and at the 
Restoration. A few words we suppress into dots in Supplement, &c] 



The Maid a bathing. [p. H8-] 

UPon a Summers day, 
'Bout middle of the morn, 
I spy'd a Lass that lay 

Stark nak'd as she was born ; 
'Twas by a running Pool, 

Within a meddow green, 
And there she lay to cool, 

Not thinking to be seen. 

Then did she by degrees 

Wash every part in rank, 
Her Arms, her breasts, her thighs, 

Her Belly, and her Flank ; 
Her legs she opened wide, 

My eyes I let down steal, 
Untill that I espy'd 

Dame natures privy Seal. I 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 231 



I stript me to the skin, 

And boldly stept unto her, 
Thinking her love to win, 

I thus began to wooe her : 
Sweet heart be not so coy, 

Time's sweet in pleasure spent 
She frown'd, and cry'd, away, 

Yet, smiling, gave consent. 



Then blushing, down she slid, [p. 149] 

Seeming to be amazed, 
But heaving up her head, 

Again she on me gazed ; 
I seeing that, lay down, 

And boldly 'gan to kiss, 
And she did smile, and frown, 

And so fell to our bliss, 

Then lay she on the ground 

As though she had been sped, 
As women in a swoon, 

Yield up, and yet not dead : 
So did this lively maid, 

When hot bloud filPd her vein, 
And coming to herself she said, 

I thank you for your pain, 



[Part 



Q4 



232 Merry Dr oiler ie, 1661. 

[Part First, 1661, ends on pages 171-175, with The new Med- 
ley of the Country man, Citizen, and Souldier (which in the 1670 
and 1691 editions are on pp. 182-187). The 1661 edition of 
Second Part has a complete title-page of its own, in black and 
red, exactly agreeing with its own First Part, except that the 
words are prefixed " The || Second Part || of." A contemporary 
MS. note in Ant. a Wood's copy, says, of each part, " is. 3d." as 
the original price. There is also, in the 1661 edition (and in that 
only), another address, here, which runs as follows : — 



" To the Reader : 

"Courteous Reader, 

" T \ J E do here present thee with the 
V V Second part of Merry Drollery, 

not doubting but it will find good Reception 
with the more Ingenious ; The deficiency of 
this shall be supplied in a third, when time 
shall serve : In the mean time 

Farewel." 

The Third Part, mentioned above, never appeared. 

The woodcut Initial W represents Salome, the daughter of Hero- 
dias, receiving from the Roman-like Stratiotes the head of John the 
Baptist (whose body lies at their feet), she holding her charger. 
The Editor hopes to engrave it for the Introduction to this present 
volume. 

The pagination commences afresh in the 1661 Second Part; 
but continues in the 1670, and the 1691 editions.] 

Merry 



233 



Merry Drollery, 1661 

Extra Songs in Part Second. 
(Omitted in 1670 and 1691 Editions.) 



The Force of Opportunity. [Part 2nd., p. 21.] 

YOu gods that rule upon the Plains, 
Where nothing but delight remains ; 
You Nymphs that haunt the Fairy Bowers, 
Exceeding Flora with her flowers ; 
The fairest woman that earth can have 
Sometimes forbidden fruit will crave, 

For any woman, whatsoe'r she be, 
Will yield to Opportunity. 

Your Courtly Ladies that attends, 

May sometimes dally with their friends ; 

And she that marries with a Knight 

May let his Lodging for a night ; 

And she that's only Worshipful 

Perhaps another friend may gull : 

For any woman, &c. 

The 



234 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

The Chamber-maid that's newly married 
Perhaps another man hath carried ; 
Your City Wives will not be alone, 
Although their husbands be from home ; 
The fairest maid in all the town 
For green will change a russet Gown ; 
For any woman, 6°r. 

And she that loves a Zealous brother, 
May change her Pulpit for another ; 
Physitians study for their skill, [p. 22. 

Whiles wives their Urinals do fill ; 
The Lawyers wife may take her pride 
Whilst he their Causes doth decide ; 
For every woman, &c. 

The Country maid, that milks the Cow, 
And takes great pains to work and do, 
I'th' fields may meet her friend or brother, 
And save her soul to get another ; 
And she that to the Market[']s gone 
May horn her man ere she come home ; 
For any woman, &c. 

You Goddesses and Nymphs so bright, 

The greater Star, the lesser light ; 

To Lords, as well as mean estates, 

Belongeth husbands horned baites, [? pates.] Then 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. Second Part. 235 

Then give your Ladies leave to prove 
The things the which your selves do love ; 

For any woman, what ere she be, 

Will yield to Opportunity. 



Lusty Tobacco. [ p. 22.] 

YOu that in love do mean to sport, 
Tobacco, Tobacco, 
First take a wench of a meaner sort, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
But let her have a comely grace, 
Like one that came from Venus race, 
Then take occasion, time, and place, 
To give her some Tobacco. 

You gamesters must be bound, [p. 23.] 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
Their bullets must be plump and round, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
Your Stopper must be stiff and strong, 
Your Pipe it must be large and long, 
Or else she'll say you do her wrong, 

She'll scorn your weak Tobacco. 

And if that you do please her well, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, All 



236 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

All others then she will expell, 

Tobacco, Tobacco. 
She will be ready at your call 
To take Tobacco, Pipe, and all, 
So willing she will be to fall 

To take your strong Tobacco. 

And when you have her favour won, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
You must hold out as you begun, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
Or else she'll quickly change her mind, 
And seek some other Friend to find, 
That better may content her mind 

In giving her Tobacco. 

And if you do not do her right, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
She'll take a course to burn your Pipe, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
And if you ask what she doth mean, 
She'll say she doth't to make it clean, 
Then take you heed of such a Quean 

For spoyling your Tobacco, 

As I my self dare boldly speak, [p- 24.] 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. Second Part. 237 

Which makes my very heart to break, 

Tobacco, Tobacco, 
For she that I take for my friend, 
Hath my Tobacco quite consum'd, 
She hath spoil'd my Pipe, and there's an end 

Of all my good Tobacco. 



On the Goldsmiths-Committee. [p 29.] 

COme Drawer, some wine, 
Or we'll pull down the Sign, 
For we are all jovial Compounders : 
We'll make the house ring, 
With healths to the KING, 

And confusion light on his Confounders. 

Since Goldsmiths Committee 
Affords us no pitty, 

Our sorrows in wine we will steep 'um, 
They force us to take 
Two Oaths, but we'll make 

A third, that we ne'r mean to keep 'um. 

And next, who e'r sees, 
We drink on our knees, 

To the King, may he thirst that repines. 

A 



238 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

A fig for those traitors 
That look to our waters, 

They have nothing to do with our wines. 

And next here's a Cup 
To the Queen, fill it up,. 

Were it poyson, we would make an end o'nt 1 
May Charles and She meet, 
And tread under feet 

Both Presbyter and Independent. 

To the Prince, and all others, 
His Sisters and Brothers, 

As low in condition as high born, 
We'll drink this, and pray, [p .30J 

That shortly they may, 

See all them that wrongs them at Tyburn.. 

And next here's three bowls 
To all gallant souls, 

That for the King did, and will venter, 
May they flourish when those 
That are his, and their foes 

Are hang'd and ram'd down to the Center. 

And next let a Glass 
To our undoers pass, 

Attended with two or three curses : May 



Merry Drollerie, 1661, Second Part. 239 

May plagues sent from hell 
Stuff their bodies as well, 

As the Cavaliers Coyn doth their purses. 

May the Cannibals of Pym 
Eat them up limb by limb, 

Or a hot Fever scorch 'um to embers, 
Pox keep 'um in bed 
Untill they are dead, 

And repent for the loss of their Members. 

And may they be found 
In all to abound, 

Both with heaven and the countries anger, 
May they never want Fractions, 
Doubts, Fears, and Distractions, 

Till the Gallow-tree choaks them from danger. 



Insatiate Desire. [p. 3 1 -] 

OThat I could by any Chymick Art 
To sperme, convert my spirit and my heart, 
That at one thrust I might my soul translate, 
And in her w ... my self degenerate, 
There steep'd in lust nine months I would remain, 
Then boldly my passage back again. 

The 



240 



T erry Drollerie, n 
The Horn exalted. 



(p- 32-) 



Listen Lordings to my Story, 
I will sing of Cuckolds glory, 
And thereat let none be vext, 
None doth know whose turn is next ■ 
And seeing it is in most mens scorn, 
Tis Charity to advance the Horn. 

Diana was a Virgin pure, 

Amongst the rest chaste and demure ; 

Yet you know well, I am sure, 

What Acteon did endure, 

If men have Horns for [such] as she, 

I pray thee tell me what are we ? 

Let thy friend enjoy his rest, 

What though he wear Acteons creast ? 

Malice nor Venome at him spit, 

He wears but what the gods thinks fit ; 

Confess he is by times Recorder 

Knight of great Diands Order. 

Luna was no venial sinner, 

Yet she hath a man within her, 

And to cut off Cuckolds scorns, 

She decks her head with Silver horns ; 

And if the moon in heaven [']s thus drest, 

The men on earth like it are blest. 



[p. 33 1 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 241 



[A Droll of a Louse (p. 33), seven verses of seven lines each, 
beginning " Discoveries of late have been made by adventures," is 
reserved. Fide ante p. 213.] 



A Letany. [p-38.] 

FRom Essex Anabaptist Laws, 
And from Norfolk Plough-tail Laws, [? taws] 
From Abigails pure tender Zeal, 
Whiter than a Brownists veal, 
From a Serjeants Temple pickle, 
And the Brethrens Conventicle, 
From roguish meetings, or Cutpurse hall, 
And New-England, worst of all, 
Libera nos Domine. 

From the cry of Ludgate debters, [p. 39-] 

And the noise of Prisoners Fetters, 
From groans of them that have the Pox, 
And coyl of Beggars in the Stocks, 
From roar o' th' Bridge, and Bedlam prate, 
And with Wives met at Billingsgate, 
From scritch-owles, and dogs night-howling, 
From Sailers cry at their main bowling, 
Libera nos domine. 

From Frank Wilsons trick of mopping, 

And her ulcered h . . . with popping, From 



*42 Merry Dr oiler ie, . 1 66 1 . 

From Knights o' th' post, and from decoys, 
From Whores, Bawds, and roaring Boys, 
From a Bulker in the dark, 
And Hannah with St Tantlins Clark, 
From Biskets Bawds have rubb'd their gums, 
And from purging-Comfit plums, 
Libera nos Domine. 

From Sue Prats Son, the fair and witty, 
The Lord of Poris?nouth, sweet and pretty, 
From her that creeps up Holbourne hill, 
And Moll that cries, God-dam-me still, 
From backwards-ringing of the Bells, 
From both the Counters and Bridewells, 
From blind Bobbin and his Bess, 
And from a Purse that's penniless, 
Libera nos Domine. 

From gold-finders, and night-weddings, 
From Womens eyes false liquid sheddings, 
From Rocks, Sands, and Cannon-shot, 
And from a stinking Chamber-pot, 
From a hundred years old sinner, [p. 4°0 

And Duke Humphreys hungry dinner, 
From stinking breath of an old Aunt [,] 
From Parritors and Pursevants [,] 
Libera nos Domine. 

From 




Merry Drollerie, 1661. 243 

From a Dutchmans snick and sneeing, 
From a nasty Irish being [,] 
From a Welchmans lofty bragging, 
And a Monsieur loves not drabbing, 

From begging Scotchmen and their pride, 
From striving 'gainst both wind and tide, 
From too much strong Wine and Beer, 
Enforcing us to domineer, 
Libera nos Domine. 



[Following the above comes. a group of more than usually ob- 
jectionable Songs, viz., John and Joan, beginning " If you will 
give ear (p. 46) ; " Full forty times over I have strived to win," 
same title (p. 61) ; The Answer to it, " He is a fond Lover that 
doateth on scorn" (p. 62) ; Love's Tenement, " If any one do 
want a house" (p. 64) ; and A New Year's Gift, " Fair Lady, for 
your New Year's Gift" (p. 81). These are all reserved for the 
Chamber of Horrors. Vide ante, p. 213]. 



New England described. [p. 103.] 

AMong the purifidian Sect, 
I mean the counterfeit Elect : 
Zealous bankrupts, Punks devout, 
Preachers suspended, rabble rout, 
Let them sell all, and out of hand 
Prepare to go to New England, 

To build new Babel strong and sure, 
Now calPd a Church unspotted pure. 

There 
r 2 



244 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

There Milk from Springs, like Rivers, flows, 

And Honey upon hawthorn grows ; 

Hemp, Wool, and Flax, there grows on trees, 

The mould is fat, it cuts like cheese ; 

All fruits and herbs spring in the fields, 

Tobacco it good plenty yields ; 

And there shall be a Church most pure, 
Where you may find salvation sure. 

There's Venison of all sorts great store, 
Both Stag, and buck, wild Goat, and Boar, 
And all so tame, that you with ease 
May take your fill, eat what you please ; 
There's Beavers plenty, yea, so many, 
That you may buy two skins a penny, 
Above all this, a Church most pure, 
Where to be saved you may be sure. 

There's flight of Fowl do cloud the skie, 
Great Turkies of threescore pound weight, 
As big as as Estriges, there Geese, [p. 104.] 

With thanks, are sold for pence a piece ; 
Of Duck and Mallard, Widgeon, Teale, 
Twenty for two-pence make a meale ; 
Yea, and a Church unspotted pure, 
Within whose bosome all are sure. 

Loe, there in shoals all sorts of fish, 

Of the salt seas, and water fresh : 

Ling, 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 245 

Ling, Cod, Poor-John, and Haberdine, 

Are taken with the Rod and Line ; 

A painful fisher on the shore 

May take at least twenty an houre ; 

Besides all this a Church most pure, 
Where you may live and dye secure. 

There twice a year all sorts of Grain 

Doth down from heaven, like hailstones, rain ; 

You ne'r shall need to sow nor plough, 

There's plenty of all things enough : 

Wine sweet and wholsome drops from trees, 

As clear as chrystal, without lees ; 

Yea, and a Church unspotted, pure, 

From dregs of Papistry secure. 

No Feasts nor festival set daies 
Are here observed, the Lord be prais'd, 
Though not in Churches rich and strong, 
Yet where no Mass was ever Sung, 
The Bulls of Bashan ne'r met there [;] 
Surplice and Cope durst not appear \ 
Old Orders all they will abjure, 
This Church hath all things new and pure. 

No discipline shall there be used, [p- 105 -3 

The Law of Nature they have chused [;] 

All 

R 3 



246 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

All that the spirit seems to move 
Each man may choose and so approve, 
There's Government without command, 
There's unity without a band ; 
A Synagogue unspotted pure, 
Where lust and pleasure dwells secure. 

Loe in this Church all shall be free 

To Enjoy their Christian liberty ; 

All things made common, void of strife, 

Each man may take anothers wife, 

And keep a hundred maids, if need, 

To multiply, increase, and breed, 

Then is not this Foundation sure, 
To build a Church unspotted, pure ? 

The native People, though yet wild, 

Are altogether kind and mild, 

And apt already, by report, 

To live in this religious sort ; 

Soon to conversion they'l be brought 

When Warrens Mariery have wrought, 

Who being sanctified and pure, 

May by the Spirit them alure. 

Let Amsterdam send forth her Brats, 
Her Fugitives and Runnagates : 

Let 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 247 

Let Bedlam, Newgate, and the Clink 

Disgorge themselves into this sink ; 

Let Bridewell and the stews be kept, 

And all sent thither to be swept ; 

So may our Church be cleans'd and pure, 
Keep both it self and state secure. 

The insatiate Lover. [p. 106] 

COme hither my own sweet duck, 
And sit upon my knee, 
That thou and I may truck 

For thy Commodity, 
If thou wilt be my honey, 

Then I will be thine own, 
Thou shalt not want for money 

If thou wilt make it known ; 
With hey ho my honey, 

My heart shall never rue* 
For I have been spending money 

And amongst the jovial Crew. 

I prethee leave thy scorning, 

Which our true love beguiles, 
Thy eyes are bright as morning, 

The Sun shines in thy smiles, 
Thy gesture is so prudent, 



Thy 



R 4 



248 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Thy language is so free, 
That he is the best Student 

Which can study thee ; 
With hey ho, 6°<r. 

The Merchant would refuse 

His Indies and his Gold 
If he thy love might chuse, 

And have thy love in hold : 
Thy beauty yields more pleasure 

Than rich men keep in store, 
And he that hath such treasure [p- 107.] 

Never can be poor ; 
With hey ho, &c. 

The Lawyer would forsake 

His wit and pleading strong : 
The Ruler and Judge would take 

Thy part wer't right or wrong ; 
Should men thy beauty see 

Amongst the learned throngs, 
Thy very eyes would be 

Too hard for all their tongues ; 
With hey ho, &c. 



Thy kisses to thy friend 

The Surgeons skill out-strips, 



For 



Merry Drollerie, 1661, 249 

For nothing can transcend 

The balsome of thy Lips, 
There is such vital power 

Contained in thy breath, 
That at the latter hour 

'Twould raise a man from death ; 
With hey, ho, &>c. 

Astronomers would not 

Lye gazing in the skies 
Had they thy beauty got, 

No Stars shine like thine eyes : 
For he that may importune 

Thy love to an embrace, 
Can read no better fortune 

Then what is in thy face. 
With hey ho, &c. 

The Souldier would throw down [p- 108.] 

His Pistols and Carbine, 
And freely would be bound 

To wear no arms but thine : 
If thou wert but engaged 

To meet him in the field, 
Though never so much inraged 

Thou couldest make him yield, 

With hey ho, &°c. 

The 



250 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

The seamen would reject [Seaman] 

To sayl upon the Sea, 
And his good ship neglect 

To be aboard of thee : 
When thou liest on thy pillows 

He surely could not fail 
To make thy brest his billows, 

And to hoyst up sayl ; 
With hey ho, &c. 

The greatest Kings alive 

Would wish thou wert their own, 
And every one would strive 

To make thy Lap their Throne, 
For thou hast all the merit 

That love and liking brings ; 
Besides a noble spirit, 

Which may conquer Kings ; 
With hey ho, &>c. 

Were Rosamond on earth 

I surely would abhor her, 
Though ne'r so great by birth 

I should not change thee for her ; 
Though Kings and Queens are gallant, [p. 109.] 

And bear a royal sway, 

The 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 251 

The poor man hath his Talent, 

And loves as well as they, 
With hey ho, &>c. 

Then prethee come and kiss me, 

And say thou art mine own, 
I vow I would not miss thee 

Not for a Princes Throne ; 
Let love and I perswade thee 

My gentle suit to hear : 
If thou wilt be my Lady, 

Then I will be thy dear ; 
With hey ho, &>c. 

I never will deceive thee, 

But ever will be true, 
Till death I shall not leave thee, 

Or change thee for a new ; 
We'll live as mild as may be, 

If thou wilt but agree, 
And get a pretty baby 

With a face like thee, 
With hey ho, &>c. 

Let these perswasions move thee 

Kindly to comply, 
There's no man that can love thee 

With so much zeal as I; 

Do 



252 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Do thou but yield me pleasure, 

And take from me this pain, 
I'll give thee all the Treasure 

Horse and man can gain ; 
With hey ho, &*c. 

I'll fight in forty duels [p. no.] 

To obtain thy grace, 
I'll give thee precious jewels 

Shall adorn thy face ; 
E'r thou for want of money 

Be to destruction hurl'd, 
For to support my honey 

I'll plunder all the world ; 
With hey ho, &°c. 

That smile doth show consenting, 

Then prethee let's be gone, 
There shall be no repenting 

When the deed is done ; 
My bloud and my affection, 

My spirits strongly move, 
Then let us for this action 

Fly to yonder grove, 
With hey ho, &>c. 



Let us lye down by those bushes 
That are grown so high, 



Where 



Merry Drollerie, 1661. 253 

Where I will hide thy blushes ; 

Here's no standers by 
This seventh day of July, 

Upon this bank we'll lye, 
Would all were, that love truly, 

As close as thou and I ; 
With hey ho [,] my honey, 

My heart shall never rue, 
For I have been spending money 

Amongst the jovial Crew. 

[Followed, in 1661 edition by " Now that the Spring," &c, and 
the three other pieces which are to be found in succession, already- 
printed in our Merry Drollery, Compleat of 1670, 1691, pp. 296 — 
301 : The last of these being the Song, " She lay all naked in her 
bed." This begins on p. 115, of Part 2nd, 1661 ; p. 300, 1691. 
In the former edition it is followed by "The Answer," beginning 
"She lay up to," &c, which, like other extremely objectionable 
pieces, is kept apart. Next follow, in 1661 edition, The Louse, and 
the Concealment.] 



The Louse. [p. 149.] 

IF that you will hear of a Ditty 
That's framed by a six-footed Creature, 
She lives both in Town and in City, 
She is very loving by nature ; 
She'l offer her service to any, 
She'l stick close but she'l prevail, 
She's entertained by too many 

Till death, she no man will fail. 

Fe?iner 



254 Merry Drollerie, 1661. 

Fenner once in a Play did describe her, 

How she had her beginning first, . 

How she sprung from the loyns of great Pharaoh, 

And how by a King she was nurs'd : 

How she fell on the Carkass of Herod> 

A companion for any brave fighter, 

And there's no fault to be found with her, 

But that she's a devillish backbiter. 

With Souldiers she's often comraded 

And often does them much good, 

She'l save them the charge of a Surgeon 

In sickness for letting them blood ; 

Corruption she draws like a horse-leech, [p. 150] 

Growing she'll prove a great breeder, 

At night she will creep in her cottage, 

By day she's a damnable feeder. 

She'l venture as much in a battel 
As any Commander may go, 
But then she'l play Jack on both sides, 
She cares not a fart for her Foe : 
She knows that alwaies she's shot-free, 
To kill her no sword will prevaile, 
But if she's taken prisoner, 
She's prest to death by the naile. 

She 



Merry Dr oiler ie, 1 66 1 . 255, 

She doth not esteem of your rich men, 
But alwaies sticks close to the poor ; 
Nor she cares not for your clean shifters, 
Nor for such as brave cloaths wear \ 
She loves all such as are non-suited, 
Or any brave fellow that lacks ; 
She's as true a friend to poor Souldiers, 
As the shirt that sticks close to their backs. 

She cannot abide your clean Laundress, 
Nor those that do set her on work, 
Her delight is all in foul linnen, 
Where in narraw seams she may lurk : 
From her and her breed God defend me, 
For I have had their company store, 
Pray take her among you [,] Gentry, 
Let her trouble poor souldiers no more. 



[As already mentioned, this is followed, in the 1661 Part Second, 
page 151, by The Concealment, beginning " I loved a maid, she 
loved not me," which is the last of the songs or poems peculiar to 
that edition. See the end of our Supplement : so paged that it may 
be either omitted or included, leaving no hiatus. We add, after 
the Supplement, the title-page of the 1670 edition of Merry Drol- 
lery, Compleat ; when reissued in 1691, the same sheets held the 
fresh title-page prefixed, such as we gave in second Volume. 
Readers now possess the entire work, all three editions, compre- 
hended in our Reprint : which is the Fourth Edition, but the first 
Annotated. J. W. E.] 



Appendix. 



APPENDIX. 



Notes, Illustrations, Various Readings, and 

Emendations of Text. 

(now first added.) 



Arranged in Four Parts : — 

i. — Choyce Drollery, 1656. 
2 . — Antidote against Melancholy, 1 6 6 1 . 
3. — Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 
4. — Merry Drollery, 1661 ; and Additional Notes 
to 1670-1691 editions : with Index. 

READERS, who have accompanied the Editor 
both in text and comment throughout these 
three volumes of Reprints from the Drolleries of the 
Restoration, can scarcely have failed to see that he has 
desired to present the work for their study with such 
advantages as lay within his reach. Certainly, he 
never could have desired to assist in bringing these 
rare volumes into the hands of a fresh generation, if 
he believed not that their few faults were far out- 
weighed by their merits ; and that much may be learnt 
from both of these. Every antiquary is well aware 
that during the troubled days of the Civil War, and 
for the remaining years of the seventeenth century, 
s 2 



260 Appendix. 

books were printed with such an abundance of typo- 
graphical errors that a pure text of any author cannot 
easily be recovered. In the case of all unlicensed 
publications, such as anonymous pamphlets, face- 
tice, broad-sheet Ballads, and the more portable Drol- 
leries, these imperfections were innumerable. Dropt 
lines and omitted verses, corrupt readings and perver- 
sions of meaning, sometimes amounting to a total de- 
struction of intelligibility, might drive an Editor to 
despair. 

In regard to the Drolleries-literaXme, especially, if 
we remember, as we ought to do, the difficulties and 
dangers attendant on the printing of these political 
squibs and pasquinades, we shall be less inclined to 
rail at the original collector, or " author," and printers. 
If we ourselves, as Editor, do our best to examine 
such other printed books and manuscripts of the time, 
as may assist in restoring what for awhile was cor- 
rupted or lost from the text (keeping these corrections 
and additions clearly distinguished, within square brack- 
ets, or in Appendix Notes to each successive volume), 
we shall find ourselves more usefully employed than in 
flinging stones at the Cavaliers of the Restoration, be- 
cause they left behind them many a doubtful reading 
or an empty flaggon. 

We have given back, to all who desire to study these 
invaluable records of a memorable time, four complete 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 261 

unmutilated works (except twenty-seven necessarily 
dotted words) : and we could gladly have furnished 
additional information regarding each and all of these, 
if further delay or increased bulk had not been equally 
inexpedient. 

1. — In Choyce Drollery, 1656, are seen such fugitive 
pieces of poetry as belong chiefly to the reign of 
Charles 1st., and to the eight years after he had been 
judicially murdered. 

2. — In Merry Drollery, 1661, and in the Antidote 
against Melancholy of the same date, we receive an 
abundant supply of such Cavalier songs, ballads, lam- 
poons or pasquinades, social and political, as may 
serve to bring before us a clear knowledge of what was 
being thought, said, and done during the first year of 
the Restoration; and, indeed, a reflection of much that 
had gone recently before, as a preparation for it. 

3. — In such additional matter as came to view in 
the Merry Drollery, Compleat, of 1670 (N.B., precisely 
the same work as what we have reprinted, from the 
1 69 1 edition, in our second volume) ; and still more 
in the delightful Westminster-Drolleries ofi67i, 1672, 
and 1674, we enjoy the humours of the Cavaliers at a 
later date : Songs from theatres as well as those in 
favour at Court, and more than a few choice pastorals 
and ditties of much earlier date, lend variety to the 
collection. 

S3 



262 Appendix, 

We could easily have added another volume ; but 
enough has surely been done in this series to show 
how rich are the materials. Let us increase the value 
of all, before entering in detail on our third series 
of Appendix Notes, by giving entirely the deeply-inter- 
esting Address to the Reader, written and published 
in 1656 (exactly contemporary with our Choyce Drol- 
lery), by Abraham Wright, for his rare collection of 
University Poems, known as "Parnassus Biceps? 

It is "An Epistle in the behalfe of those now doubly- 
secluded and sequestered Members, by one who himselfe 
is none." 

"To the Ingenuous [Sheet sig. A 2.] 



READER. 



SIR, 




Hese leaves present you with some few 
drops of that Ocean of Wit, which flowed 
from those two brests of this Nation, the 
Universities j and doth now (the sluces 
being puld up) overflow the whole Land : 
or rather like those Springs of Paradice, 
doth water and enrich the whole world ; whilst the Foun- 
tains themselues are dryed up, and that Twin-Paradise 
become desart. For then were these Verses Composed, 
when Oxford and Camebridge were Universities, and a 
Colledge [A 2, reverso~\ more learned then a Town-Hall, 
when the Buttery and Kitchin could speak Latine, 
though not Preach; and the very irrational Turnspits 
had so much knowing modesty, as not to dare to come 
into a Chappel, or to mount any Pulpits but their own. 
Then were these Poems writ, when peace and plenty were 
the best Patriots and Msecenasses to great Wits ; when 
we could sit and make Verses under our own Figtrees, 
and be inspired from the juice of our own Vines : then, 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 263 

when it was held no sin for the same man to be both a 
Poet, and a Prophet ; and to draw predictions no lesse 
from his Verse then his Text. Thus you shall meet here 
St. Pauls Rapture in a Poem, and the fancy as high and 
as clear as the third Heaven, into which [A. 3] that 
Apostle was caught up : and this not onely in the ravish- 
ing expressions and extasies of amorous Composures and 
Love Songs ; but in the more grave Dorick strains of 
sollid Divinity : Anthems that might have become Davids 
Harpe, and Asaphs Quire, to be sung, as they were made, 
with the Spirit of that chief Musitian. Againe, In this 
small Glasse you may behold your owne face, fit your own 
humors, however wound up and tuned ; whether to the 
sad note, and melancholy look of a disconsolate Elegy, or 
those more sprightly jovial Aires of an Epithalamium, or 
Epinichion. Further, would you see a Mistresse of any 
age, or face, in her created, or uncreated complexion : 
this mirrour presents you with more shapes then a Con- 
jurers \yerso] Glasse, or a Limner's Pencil. It will also 
teach you how to court that Mistresse, when her very 
washings and pargettings cannot flatter her ; how to raise 
a beauty out of wrinkles fourscore years old, and to fall 
in love even with deformity and uglinesse. From your 
Mistresse it brings you to your God ; and (as it were 
some new Master of the Ceremonies) instructs you how 
to woe, and court him likewise ; but with approaches and 
distances, with gestures and expressions suitable to a 
Diety [Deity] ; addresses clothed with such a sacred 
filial horror and reverence, as may invite and embolden 
the most despairing condition of the saddest gloomy Sin- 
ner ; and withall dash out of countenance the greatest 
confidence of the most glorious Saint : and not with that 
blasphemous familiarity [A 4] of our new enlightened and 
inspired men, who are as bold with the Majesty and glory 
of that Light that is unapproachable, as with their own 
ignes fatui ; and account of the third Person in the 
blessed Trinity for no more then their Fellow- Ghost; 
thinking him as much bound to them for their vertiginous 
blasts and whi[r]le-winds, as they to him for his own 
most holy Spirit. Your Authors then of these few sheets 

S4 



264 Appendix. 

are Priests, as well as Poets ; who can teach you to pray 
in verse, and (if there were not already too much phan- 
tasticknes in that Trade) to Preach likewise : while they 
turn Scripture-chapters into Odes, and both the Testa- 
ments into one book of Psalmes : making Parnassus as 
sacred as Mount Olivet, and the nine Muses no lesse re- 
ligious then a Cloyster of Nuns, [verso. .] But yet for all 
this I would not have thee, Courteous Reader, pass thy 
censure upon those two Fountains of Religion and Learn- 
ing, the Universities, from these few small drops of wit, 
as hardly as some have done upon the late Assemblies 
three-half-penny Catechisme : as if all their publick and 
private Libraries, all their morning and evening watch- 
ings, all those pangs and throwes of their Studies, were 
now at length delivered but of a Verse, and brought to 
bed onely of five feet, and a Conceit. For although the 
"judicious modesty of these men dares not look the world 
in the face with any of Theorau Johns Revelations, or 
those glaring New-lights that have muffled the Times and 
Nation with a greater confusion and darknes, then ever 
benighted [A 5] the world since the first Chaos : yet 
would they please but to instruct this ignorant Age with 
those exact elaborate Pieces, which might reform Philo- 
sophy without a Civil War, and new modell even Divinity 
its selfe without the ruine of either Church, or State ; 
probably that most prudent and learned Order of the 
Church of Rome, the Jesuite, should not boast more 
sollid, though more numerous Volum[e]s in this kind. 
And of this truth that Order was very sensible, when it 
felt the rational Divinity of one single Chillingivorth to 
be an unanswerable twelve-years-task for all their Eng- 
lish Colledges in Chrisendome. And therefore that 
Society did like its selfe, when it sent us over a War in- 
stead of an Answer, and proved us Hereticks by the 
Sword : which [verso'] in the first place was to Rout the 
Universities, and to teach our two Fountains of Learning 
better manners, then for ever heareafter to bubble and 
swell against the Apostolick Sea. And yet I know not 
whether the depth of their Politicks might not have ad- 
vised to have kept those Fountains within their own 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 265 

banks, and there to have dammd them and choakd them 
up with the mud of the Times, rather then to have let 
those Protestant Streams run, which perchance may effect 
that now by the spreading Riverets, which they could 
never have done through the inclosed Spring : as it had 
been a deeper State-piece and Reach in that Sanedrim, 
the great Councell of the Jewish Nation, to have confined 
the Apostles to Jerusalem, and there to have muzzeld 
them [A 6] with Oaths, and Orders ; rather then by a 
fruitful Persecution to scatter a few Gospel Seeds, that 
would spring up the Religion of the whole world : which 
had it been Coopd within the walls of that City, might (for 
all they knew) in few years have expired and given up 
the ghost upon the same Golgotha with its Master. And 
as then every Pair of Fishermen made a Church and 
caught the sixt part of the world in their Nets ; so now 
every Pair of Ce[o] Hedge-fellows make as many several 
Universityes ; which are truly so call'd, in that they are 
Catholick, and spread over the face of the whole earth ; 
which stand amazed, to see not onely Religion, but 
Learning also to come from beyond the Alpes ; and that 
a poor despised Canton and nook of the world should 
contain as much of each \yerso~] as all the other Parts be- 
sides. But then, as when our single Jesus was made an 
universall Saviour, and his particular Gospel the Catho- 
lick Religion ; though that Jesus and this Gospel did 
both take their rise from the holy City ; yet now no City 
is more unholy and infidel then that ; insomuch that there 
is at this day scarce any thing to be heard of a Christ at 
Jerusalem, more then that such a one was sometimes 
there, nor any thing to be seen of his Gospel, more 
then a Sepulcher : just so it is here with us ; where 
though both Religion and Learning do owe their 
growth, as well as birth, to those Nurseryes of 
both, the Universityes ; yet, since the Siens of those 
Nurseryes have been transplanted, there's little remaines 
in them now (if they are not belyed) either of the old [A 7] 
Religion and Divinity, more then its empty Chair & Pul- 
pit, or of the antient Learning & Arts, except bare 
Schools, and their gilded Superscriptions : so far have we 



266 Appendix. 

beggard our selves to enrich the whole world. And thus, 
Ingenuous Sir, have I given you the State and Condition 
of this Poetick Miscellany , as also of the Authors 2 it being 
no more then some few slips of the best Florists made up 
into a slender Garland, to crown them in their Pilgrimage, 
and refresh thee in thine : if yet their very Pilgrimage be 
not its selfe a Crown equall to that of Confessors, and 
their Academicall Dissolution a Resurrection to the great- 
est temporall glory : when they shall be approved of by 
men and Angels for a chosen Generation, a Royal Priest- 
hood, a peculiar People. In the interim let this [verso~\ 
comfort be held out to you, our secluded University mem- 
bers, by him that is none ; (and therefore what hath been 
here spoken must not be interpreted as out of passion to 
my self, but meer zeal to my Mother) that according to 
the generally received Principles and Axioms of Policy, 
and the soundest Judgment of the most prudential States- 
men upon those Principles, the date of your sad Ostra- 
cisme is expiring, and at an end ; but yet such an end, as 
some of you will not embrace when it shall be offered ; 
but will chuse rather to continue Peripateticks through the 
whole world, then to return, and be so in your own Col- 
ledges. For as that great Councell of Trent had a Form 
and Conclusion altogether contrary to the expectation and 
desires of them that procured it ; so our great Councels of 
England [A 8] (our late Parliament) will have such a re- 
sult, and Catastrophe, as shall no ways answer the Fasts 
and Prayers, the Humiliations, and Thanksgivings of 
their Plotters and Contrivers : such a result I say, that 
will strike a palsie through Mr. Pirns ashes, make his cold 
Marble sweat ; and put all those several Partyes, and 
Actors, that have as yet appeard upon our tragical bloudy 
Stage, to an amazed stand and gaze: when they shall 
confess themselves (but too late) to be those improvident 
axes and hammers in the hand of a subtle Workman ; 
whereby he was enabled to beat down, and square out 
our Church and State into a Conformity with his own. 
And then it will appeare that the great Worke, and the 
holy Cause, and the naked Arme, so much talked of for 
[verso] these fifteen years, were but the work, and the 



Choyce Drollery -, 1656. 267 

cause, and the arme of that Hand, which hath all this 
while reached us over the Alpesj dividing, and composing, 
winding us up, and letting us down, untill our very dis- 
cords have set and tuned us to such notes, both in our 
Ecclesiastical, and Civill Government ; as may soonest 
conduce to that most necessary Catholick Unison and 
Harmony, which is an essential part of Christs Church 
here upon Earth, and the very Church its selfe in Heaven. 
And thus far, Ingenuous Reader, suffer him to be a Poet 
in his Prediction, though not in his Verse ; who desires 
to be known so far to thee, as that he is a friend to perse- 
cuted Truth and Peace ; and thy most affectionate Chris- 
tian Servant, 

Ad: Wright" 

( From Parnassus Biceps : or, Sever all Choice Pieces of 
Poetry, composed by the best Wits that ivere in both the 
Universities before their Dissolution. London: Printed 
for George Eversden at the Signe of the Maidenhead in 
St. Pauls Church-yard, 1656.) 



i.— CHOYCE DROLLERY, 1656. 

Note, on The Address to the Reader, &c. 

The subscribed initials, " R. P." are those of Robert 
Pollard; whose name appears on the title-page (which we 
reproduce), preceding his address. Excepting that he 
was a bookseller, dwelling and trading at the " Ben Jon- 
son's Head, behind the Exchange," in business-con- 
nection with John Sweeting, of the Angel, in Pope's 
Head Alley, in 1656 ; and that he had previously issued 
a somewhat similar Collection of Poems to the Choyce 
Drollery (successful, but not yet identified), we know 
nothing more of Robert Pollard. The books of that date, 
and of that special class, are extremely rare, and the few 
existing copies are so difficult of access (for themost part 
in private possession, almost totally inaccessible except to 
those who know not how to use them), that information 
can only be acquired piecemeal and laboriously. Five 



268 Appendix. 

years hence, if the Editor be still alive, he may be able to 
tell much more concerning the authors and the compilers 
of the Restoration Drolleries. 

We are told that there is an extra leaf to Choyce Drol- 
lery, "only found in a few copies, containing ten lines of 
verse, beginning Fame's ivindy trump, &c. This leaf 
occurs in one or two extant copies of England's Par- 
nassus, 1600. Many of the pieces found here are 
much older than the date of the book [viz., 1656]. It 
contains notices of many of our early poets, and, unlike 
some of its successors, is of intrinsic value. Only two or 
three copies have occurred." (W. C. H.'s Handb. Pop. 
Lit. G. B., 1867, p. 168.J "Cromwell's Government or- 
dered this book to be burned." (Ibid.) On this last item 
see our Introduction, section first. J. P. Collier, who 
prepared the Catalogue of Richard Heber's Collection, 
Bibliotheca Heberiana, Pt. iv., 1834 (a rich storehouse for 
bibliographical students, but not often gratefully acknow- 
ledged by them), thus writes of Choyce Drollery : — "This 
is one of the most intrinsically valuable of the Drolleries, 
if only for the sake of the very interesting poem in which 
characters are given of all the following Poets : Shake- 
speare, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Chap- 
man, Daborne, Sylvester, Quarles, May, Sands, Digges, 
Daniel, Drayton, Withers, Brown, Shirley, Ford, Mid- 
dleton, Heywood, Churchyard, Dekker, Brome, Chaucer, 
Spencer, Basse, and finally John Shank, the Actor, who 
is said to have been famous for a jig. Other pieces are 
much older, and are here reprinted from previous col- 
lections" [mostly lost]. P. 90. 

It is also known to J. O. Halliwell-Phillips; (but, truly, 
what is not known to him ?) See Shakespeare Society's 
Papers, m. 172, 1847. 

In our copy of England's Parnassus (unindexed, save 
subjects), 1600, we sought to find "Fame's ivindy 
trump." [We hear that the leaf was in E. P. at Tite's 
sale, 1874.] 

As.we have never seen a copy of Choyce Drollery con- 
taining the passage of "ten lines," described as beginning 
" Fame's Windy Trump," we cannot be quite certain of 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 269 

the following, from England's Parnassus, 1600, being the 
one in question, but believe that it is so. Perhaps it ran, 
"Fame's Windy Trump, whatever sound out-flies" &c. 
There are twenty-seven lines in all. We distinguish the 
probable portion of " ten lines " by enclosing the other 
two parts in brackets : — 

FAME. 
[ A Monster swifter none is under sunne ; 
■**■ Encreasing, as in ivaters ive descrie 
The circles small, of nothing that begun, 
Which, at the length, unto such breadth do come, 
That of a drop, ivhichfrom the skies doth fall, 
The circles spread, and hide the ivaters all : 
So Fame, inflight encreasing more and more ; 
For, at the first, she is not scarcely knowne, 
But by and by she fleets from shore to shore, 
To clouds from th' earth her stature straight is growne. 
There 'whatsoever by her trumpe is blo%vne,~\ 

The sound, that both by sea and land out-flies, 

Rebounds againe, and verberates the skies. 

They say, the earth that first the giants bred, 

For anger that the gods did them dispatch, 

Brought forth this sister of those monsters dead, 

Full light offoote, swift wings the ivinds to catch : 

Such monsters erst did nature never hatch. 

As many plumes she hath from top to toe, 

So many eyes them underwatch or moe j 

And tongues do speake : so many eares do harke. 

[By night 'tweene heaven she flies and earthly shade, 
And, shreaking, takes no quiet sleepe by darke : 
On houses roofes, on towers, as keeper made, 
She sits by day, and cities threates f invade ; 
And as she tells what things she sees by view, 
She rather shelves thaf s fained false, then true.~\ 

[Legend of Albanact.] I. H., Mirror of Magist. 

Page 1 . Deare Love, let me this evening dye. 

This beautiful little love-poem re-appears, as Song 77, 
in Windsor Drollery, 1672, p. 63. (There had been a 



270 Appendix. 

previous edition of that work, in 1671, which we have 
examined : it is not noted by bibliographers, and is quite 
distinct.) A few variations occur. Verse 2. are ivrack'dj 
3. In love is not commended; only sweet, All praise, no 
pity ; who fondly j 4. Shall shortly by dead Lovers 
lie; halloiv'd ; 5. He which all others els excels, That 
are ; 6. Will, though thou ; 7. the Bells shall ring ; 
While all to black is; (last line but two in parenthesis;) 
Making, like Flowers, &c. 

Page 4. Nor Love nor Fate dare I accuse. 

By Richard Brome, in his " Northerne Lasse" 1632, 
Act ii., sc. 6. It is also given in Westminster-Drollery , 
1 67 1, i. 83 (the only song in common). But compare 
with it the less musical and tender, " Nor Love, nor Fate 
can I accuse of hate" in same vol. ii. 90, with Appendix 
Note thereunto, p. lxiii. 

Page 5. One night the great Apollo, pleased ivith Ben. 

This remarkable and little-known account of "The 
Time-Poets" is doubly interesting, as being a contem- 
porary document, full of life-like portraiture of men 
whom no lapse of years can banish from us ; welcome 
friends, whom we grow increasingly desirous of be- 
holding intimately. Glad are we to give it back thus to 
the world ; our chief gem, in its rough Drollery-setting : 
lifted once more into the light of day, from out the cob- 
webbed nooks where it so long-time had lain hidden. 
Our joy would have been greater, could we have re- 
stored authoritatively the lost sixteenth-line, by any 
genuine discovery among early manuscripts; or told 
something conclusive about the author of the poem, who 
has laid us under obligation for these vivid portraits of 
John Ford, Thomas Heywood, poor old Thomas Church- 
yard, and Ben's courageous foeman, worthy of his steel, 
that Thomas Dekker who " followed after in a dream." 

In deep humility we must confess that nothing is yet 
learnt as to the authorship. Here, in the year 1656, 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 271 

almost at fore-front of Choyce Drollery, the very strength 
of its van -guard, appeared the memorable poem. 
Whether it were then and there for the first time in print, 
or borrowed from some still more rare and now-lost 
volume, none of us can prove. Even at this hour, a pos- 
sibility remains that our resuscitation of Choyce Drollery 
may help to bring the unearthing of explanatory facts 
from zealous students. We scarcely dare to cherish hope 
of this. Certainly we may not trust to it. For Gerard 
Langbaine knew the poem well, and quoted oft and 
largely from it in his 1691 Account of the English Dra- 
matick Poets. But he met with it nowhere save in Choyce 
Drollery, and writes of it continually in language that 
proves how ignorant he was of whom we are to deem the 
author. Yet he wrote within five-and-thirty years be- 
hind the date of its appearance ; and might easily have 
learnt, from men still far from aged, who had read the 
Drollery on its first publication, whatever they could tell 
of " The Time-Poets :" if, indeed, they could tell any- 
thing. Five years earlier, William Winstanley had 
given forth his Lives of the most famous English Poets, in 
June, 1686; but he quotes not from it, and leaves us 
without an Open Sesame. Even Oldys could not tell ; or 
Thomas Hearne, who often had remembered whatever 
Time forgot. 

As to the date : we believe it was certainly written be- 
tween 1620 (inclusive) and 1636; nearer the former year. 

We reconcile ourselves for the failure, by turning to 
such other and similar poetic groupings as survive. We 
listen unto Richard Barnfield, when he sings sweetly his 
"Remembrance of some English Poets," in 1598. We 
cling delightedly to the words of our noble Michael Dray- 
ton — whose descriptive map of native England, Poly- 
olbion, glitters with varie-coloured light, as though it 
were a mediaeval missal : to whom, enditing his Epistle 
to friend Henry Reynolds — "A Censure of the Poets" — 
the Muses brought each bard by turn, so that the picture 
might be faithful : even as William Blake, idealist and 
spiritual Seer, believed of spirit-likenesses in his own ex- 
perience. And, not without deep feeling (marvelling, 



272 Appendix. 

meanwhile, that still the task of printing them with Edi- 
torial care is unattempted), we peruse the folio manu- 
scripts of that fair-haired minstrel of the Cavaliers, George 
Daniel of Beswick, while he also, in his " Vindication of 
Poesie," sings in praise of those whose earlier lays are 
echoing now and always " through the corridors of 
Time :"— 

Truth speaks of old, the poiver of Poesie ; 

Amphion, Orpheus, stones and trees could move ; 

Men, first by verse, ivere taught Civilitie ; 

' Tis known and granted ; yet ivould it behove 

Mee, ivith the Ancient Singers, here to croivne 
Some later Quills, some Makers of our ovune. 

Nor should we fail to thank the younger Evelyn, for 
such graphic sketches as he gives of Restoration- Dra- 
matists, of Cowley, Dryden, Wycherley, "Sedley and 
easy Etherege /'a new world of wits, all of whose works 
we prize, without neglecting for their sakes the older 
Masters who " so did take Eliza, and our James." 

Something that we could gladly say, will come in be- 
fittingly on after-pages of this volume, in the " Addi- 
tional Note on Sir John Suckling's * Sessions of the 
Poets/ " as printed in our Merry Drollery, Compleat, 
page 72. 



Are we stumbling at the threshold, absit omen I even 
amid our delight in perusing " the Time- Poets/' when we 
wonder at the precise meaning of the statement in our 
opening couplet ? 

One night the great Apollo, pleas' 'd ivith Ben, 
Made the odd number of the Muses ten. 

By whom additional ? Who is the lady, thus elevated ? 
We see only one solution : namely, that furnished by the 
conclusion of the poem. It was the Faerie Queene her- 
self whom the God lifted thus, in honour of her English 
Poets, to rank as the Tenth Muse, an equal with Urania, 
Clio, Euterpe, and their sisterhood. Yet something 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 273 

seems wanting, next to it ; for we never reach a full-stop 
until the end of the 39th (or query, the 40th) line ; and all 
the confluent nominatives lack a common verbal-action. 
Our mind, it is true, accepts intelligibly the onward rush 
of each and all (but later, " with equal pace each of them 
softly creeps"). It may be only grammatical pedantry 
which craves some such phrase, absent from the text, as — 

\While throng' d around his comrades and his peers, 
To list the 'sounding Music of the Spheres .-] 

But, since a momentary rashness prompts us here to 
dare so much, as to imagine the hiatus filled, let us sup- 
pose that the lost sixteenth-line ran someway thus (each 
reader being free to try experiments himself, with chance 
of more success) : — 

Divine-composing Quarles, ivhose lines aspire 

\_And gloiv, as doth ivith like etherial fire~\ 16th. 

The April of all Poesy in May, 

Who makes our English speak Pharsalia ; 

It is with some timidity we let this stand : but, as the 
text is left intact, our friends will pardon us ; and foes we 
never quail to meet. As to Ben Jonson, see our " Ses- 
sions," in Part iv. Of Beaumont and Fletcher, we 
write in the note on final page of Choyce Drollery, p. 100. 
Of "Ingenious Shakespeare " we need say no more than 
give the lines of Richard Barnfield in his honour, from 
the Poems in diuers humors, 1598 : — 

A Remembrance of some English Poets. 

Liue Spenser euer, in thy Fairy Queene : 
Whose like (for deepe Conceit) ivas neuer seene. 
Croivnd mayst thou bee, vnto thy more renoivne, 
(As King of Poets) ivith a Laiurell Croivne. 

And Daniell, praised for thy siveet-chast Verse : 
Whose Fame is grav'd in Rosamonds blacke Herse. 
Still mayst thou liue : and still be honored, 
For that rare Worke, The White Rose and the Red. 



274 Appendix. 

And Drayton, whose ivel-ivritten Tragedies 
And sweet Epistles, soare thy fame to skies. 
Thy learned Name, is cequall tuith the rest j 
Whose stately Numbers are so ivell addrest. 

And Shakespeare thou, ivhose hony-flcnving Vaine, 
(Pleasing the World) thy Praises doth obtaine. 
Whose Venus, and ivhose Lucrece (siveete and chaste) 
Thy Name in fames immortall Booke hath placet. 
Liue euer you, at least in Fame Hue euer : 
Well may the Bodye dye, but Fame dies neuer. 

The praise of Massinger will not seem overstrained ; al- 
though he never affects us with the sense of supreme 
genius, as does Marlowe. The recognition of George 
Chapman's grandeur, and the power with which this re- 
cognition is expressed, show how tame is the influence of 
Massinger in comparison. There need be little question 
that it was to Dekker's mind and pen we owe the nobler 
portion of the Virgin Martyr. Massinger, when along- 
side of Marlow, Webster, and Dekker, is like Euripides 
contrasted with ^Eschylus and Sophocles. We think of 
him as a Playwright, and successful ; but these others 
were Poets of Apollo's own body-guard. Drayton sings : 

Next Marlow, bathed in the Thespian springs, 
Had in him those brave translunary things 
That the first poets had, his raptures ivere 
All air and fire, ivhich made his verses clear ; 
For that fine madness still he did retain, 
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain. 

Robert Daborne is chiefly interesting to us from his 
connection in misfortunes and dramatic labours with Mas- 
singer and Nat Field ; and as joining them in the suppli- 
cation for advance of money from Philip Henslow, while 
they lay in prison. The reference to Daborne's clerical, 
as well as to his dramatic vocation, and to his having died 
(in Ireland, we believe, leaving behind him sermons,) 
" Amphibion by the Ministry," confirms the general 
belief. 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 275 

Jo : Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, 162 1 ; 
Thomas May's of Lucan's Pharsalia, George Sandys' 
of Ovid's Metamorphoses, need little comment here ; 
some being referred to, near the end of our volume. 

Dudley Digges (1612-43), born at Chilham Castle, 
near Canterbury (now the seat of Charles S. Hardy, Esq.); 
son of Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the Rolls, wrote a 
reverent Elegy for Jonsonus Virbius, 1638. L[eonard] 
Digges had, fifteen years earlier, written the memorial 
lines beginning " Shake-speare, at length thy pious fel- 
lows give || The World thy Workes :" which appear at 
beginning of the first folio Shakespeare, 1623. 

To Samuel Daniel's high merits we have only lately 
awakened : his " Complaint of Rosamond " has a sus- 
tained dignity and pathos that deserve all Barnfield's 
praise ; the " Sonnets to Delia " are graceful and impres- 
sive in their purity ; his " Civil Wars" may seem heavy, 
but the fault lies in ourselves, if unsteady readers, not the 
poet : thus we suspect, when we remember the true poetic 
fervour of his Pastoral, 

O happy Golden Age ! 

and his Description of Beauty, from Marino^ 

Of " Heroick Drayton " we write more hereafter : 
He grows dearer to us with every year. His " Dowsa- 
bell " is on p. 73. Was his being coupled as a " Poet- 
Beadle," in allusion to his numerous verse-epistles, show- 
ing an acquaintance with all the worthies of his day, 
even as his Polyolbion gives a roll-call of the men, and a 
gazetteer of the England they made illustrious ? For, as 
shown in the Apophth.egm.mes of Erasmus, 1564, Booke 
2nd, (p. 296 of the Boston Reprint,) it is " the proper 
office and dutie of soche biddelles (who were called in 
latin Nomenclators) to have perfecte knowlege and re- 
membrance of the names, of the surnames, and of the 
titles of dignitees of all persones, to the ende that thei 
maie helpe the remembraunce of their maisters in the 
same when neede is." To our day the office of an 
Esquire Beddell is esteemed in Cambridge University. 
But, we imagine, George Wither is styled a " Poets 
Beadle" with a very different significance. It was the 

T 2 



276 Appendix. 

Bridewell-Beadles' whip which he wielded vigorously, 
in flagellation of offenders, that may have earned him the 
title. See his "Abuses Stript and Whipt," 1613, and turn to 
the rough wood-cut of cart's-tail punishment shown in 
the frontispiece to A Caueat or Warening for Common 
Cursetors, 'vulgarly called Vagabones, set forth by Thomas 
Harman, Esquier for the utilitie and profit of his na- 
turall country, &c, 1566, and later (Reprinted by E. E. 
Text Soc, and in 0. B. Coll. Misc., i. No. 4, 1871). 

George Wither was his own worst foe, when he de- 
scended to satiric invective and pious verbiage. True 
poet was he ; as his description of the Muse in her 
visit to him while imprisoned in the Marshalsea, with al- 
most the whole of his " Shepherd's Hunting " and "Mis- 
tress of Phil'arete," prove incontestibly. He is to be 
loved and pitied : although perversely he will argue as a 
schismatick, always wrong-headed and in trouble, which- 
ever party reigns, To him, in his sectarian zeal or ser- 
monizing platitudes — all for our good, alas ! — we can but 
answer with the melancholy Jacques : "I do not desire 
you to please me. I do desire you to sing /" 

" Pan's Pastoral Brozun " is, of course, Wm. Browne, 
author of "Britannia's Pastorals." Like James Shirley, 
last in the group of early Dramatists, his precocious 
genius is remembered in the text. Regretting that no 
painted or sculptured portrait of John Forde survives, 
we are thankful for this striking picture of him in his 
sombre meditation. We could part, willingly, with half 
of our dramatic possessions since the nineteenth century 
began, to recover one of the lost plays by Ford. No 
writer holds us more entirely captive to the tenderness of 
sorrow ; no one's hand more lightly, yet more powerfully, 
stirs the affections, while admitting the sadness, than he 
who gave us " The Broken Heart," and "'Tis pity she's 
a whore." 

Not unhappily chosen is the epithet " The Squibbing 
Middleton," for he almost always fails to impress us 
fully by his great powers. He warms not, he enlightens 
not, with steady glow, but gives us fireworks instead of 
stars or altar-burnings. We except from this rebuke his 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 277 

" Faire Quarrel/' 1622, which shows a much firmer 
grasp and purpose, fascinating us the while we read. 
Perhaps, with added knowledge of him will come higher 
esteem. 

Of Thomas Heywood the portrait is complete, every 
word developing a feature : his fertility, his choice of sub- 
jects, and rubicund appearance. 

Nor is the humourous sadness, of the figure shewn by 
the aged Thomas Churchyard, less touching be- 
cause it is dashed in with burlesque. "Poverty and 
Poetry his Tomb doth enclose" (Camden's Remains). His 
writings extend from the time of Edward VI. to early in 
the reign of James I. (he died in 1604); some of the 
poems in Tottel's Miscellany , 1557, were claimed by him, 
but are not identified, and J. P. Collier thought him not 
unlikely to have partly edited the work, His " Tragedie 
of Shore's Wife," (best edit. i69,8),in the Mirror for Ma- 
gistrates, surpasses most of his other poems ; yet are there 
biographical details in Churchyard's Chips, 1575, that re- 
ward our perusal. Gascoigne and several other poets 
added Tarn Marti quam Mercurio after their names ; but 
Churchyard could boast thus with more truth as a Soldier. 
He says : — 

Full thirty yeers, both Court and Warres I tryed, 
And still I sought acquaintaunce xuith the best, 
And served the Staet, and did such hap abyed 
As might befall, and Fortune sent the rest : 
When drom did sound, a souldier was I prest, 
To sea or lande, as Princes quarrell stoed, 
And for the saem, full oft I lost my blood. 

But, throughout, misfortune dogged him : — 

. . . To serve my torn [i.e., turn] in service of the Queen : 
But God he knoes, my gayn ivas small, Iiveen, 
For though 1 did my credit still encreace, 
I got no ivelth, by vuarres, ne yet by peaee. 

(C.'s Chips : A Tragicall Discourse of the 
unhappy man's Life ; verses 9, 26.) 
Of Thomas Dekker, or Decker (about 1575-1638), 
"A priest in Apollo's Temple, many yeares," with his " Old 




278 Appendix, 

Fortunatus," both parts of his " Honest Whore," his 
" Satiromastix," and " Gull's Hornbook," &c, — which 
take us back to all the mirth and squabbling of the day — 
we need add no word but praise. We believe that a 
valuable clue is afforded by the allusion in our text to the 
pamphlet " Dekker his Dreame," 1620, (reprinted by J. 
O. Halliwell, i860.) We may be certain that "The 
Time- Poets" was not written earlier than 1620, or any 
later than 1636 (or probably than 1632), and before 
Jonson's death. 

Page 7. " Rounce, Robbie, Hobble, he that ivrit so big." 

In this 50th line the word "high " is evidently redundant 
(probably an error in printer's MS., not erased when the 
true word " big " was added) : we retain it, of course, 
though in smaller type ; as in similar cases of excess. 
But who was " Rounce, Robbie, Hobble ?" Most certainly 
it was no other than Richard Stanyhurst (1547-1618), 
whose varied adventures, erudition, and eccentricities of 
verse combined to make him memorable. His Hexameter 
translation of the JEneis Books i-iv, appeared in 1583; 
not followed by any more during the thirty-five years 
succeeding. Gabriel Harvey praised him, in his "Foure 
Letters" &c, although Thomas Nashe, in 1592, declares 
that " Master Stanyhurst ( though otherwise learned ) 
trod a foule, lumbring, boystrous, wallowing measure in 
his translation of Virgil. He had never been praised by 
Gabriel [Harvey] for his labour, if therein he had not 
been so famously absurd." (Strange Neives.) This 
JEneid had a limited reprint in 1839. Warton in Hist. 
Eng. Poetry gives examples (misnaming him Robert, 
but Camden says " Eruditissimus ille nobilis Richardus 
Stanihurstus." In his preface to Greene's Arcadia, Nash 
quotes Stanyhurst's description of a Tempest : — 

Then did he make heauens 'vault to rebound 
With rounce robble bobble, [N.B.] 

Of ruffe raffe roaring, 

With thicke thiuacke thurly bouncing : 

and indicates his opinion of the poet, "as of some thra- 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 279 

sonical huffe-snuffe," indulging in " that quarrelling kind 
of verse." One more specimen, to justify our text, re- 
garding " he that writ so big :" in the address to the 
winds, JEn.. Bk. i., Neptune thus rails : — 

Dare ye, lo, curst baretours, in this my Seignorie regal, 
Too raise such racks iacks on seas and danger unordered ? 

The recent death of Stanyhurst, 1618, strengthens our 
belief that the Time-Poets was not later than 1620-32. 

To William Basse we owe the beautiful epitaph on 
Shakespeare, printed in 1633, " Renowned Spencer, lye a 
thought more nigh To learned Chaucer, etc., and at least 
two songs (beside "Great Brittaine's Sunnes-set, 1613), 
viz., the Hunter in his Career, beginning " Long ere the 
Morn," and one of the best Tom o' Bedlam's ; probably, 
" Forth from my sad and darksome cell." 

The name of John Shanke, here suggestively famous 
" for a jigg," occurs in divers lists of players (see J. P. 
C.'s Annals of the Stage, passim), he having been one of 
Prince Henry's Company in 1603. That he was also a 
singer, we have this verse in proof, written in the reign of 
James I. (Bibliog, Ace. i. 163) : — 

That's the fat foole of the Curtin, 

And the lean fool of the Bull : 
Since Shanke did lea've to sing his rimes 

He is counted but a gull. 
The Players on the Banckeside, 

The round Globe and the Swan, 
Will teach you idle tricks of lo've, 

But the Bull ivill play the man* 
(W. Turner's Common Cries of London Toivn, 1662 J 

" Broom" is Richard Brome (died 1652), whose racy 
comedies have been, like Dekker's, lately reprinted. The 
insinuation that Ben Jonson had " sent him before to 
sweep the way," alludes, no doubt, to the fact of Brome 
having earlier been Jonson's servant, and learning from 
his personal discourse much of dramatic art. Neither 
was it meant nor accepted as an insult, when, (printed 
i632,)Jonson wrote ("according to Ben's own nature and 



280 Appendix. 

custom, magisterial enough," as their true friend Alex- 
ander Brome admits), 

I had you for a Servant once, Dick Brome; 

And you perform' 'd a Servant's faithful parts : 

Novo, you are got into a nearer room 

Of Fellowship, professing my old Arts. 

And you do doe them well, ivith good applause, 

Which you have justly gained from the Stage, &c. 

It is amusing to mark the survival of the old joke in 
our text, about sweeping (it came often enough, in Figaro 
in London, &c, at the time of the 1832 Reform Bill, as to 
Henry Brougham and Vaux); when we see it repeated, 
almost literally, in reference to Alexander Pope's fellow- 
labourer on the Odyssey translation, the Rev. William 
Broome, of our St. John's College, Cambridge : — 

Pope came off clean ivith Homer, but they say, 
Broome went before, and kindly sivept the way. 

Leaving a few words on the matchless Ben himself for 
the "Sessions of the Poets" Additional Note, we end 
this commentary on our book's chief poem with a few more 
stanzas from the Beswick Manuscript, bv George Daniel, 
(written in great part before, part after, 1647,) in honour 
of Ben Jonson, but preceded by others relating to Sir 
Philip Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, 
Beaumont, and Donne : — 

/ am not bound to honour antique names, [8th verse] 

Nor am I led by other men to chuse 

Any thing ivorthy, which my judgment blames; 

Heare better straines, though by a later Muse ; 
The siveet Arcadian singer first did raise 
Our Language current, and deserved his Baies. 

That Lord of Penhurst, Penhurst whose sad walls 
Yet mourne their master, in the Belgicke fray 
Untimely lost ; to ivhose dear funer alls 
The Medwaie doth its constant tribute pay e ; 
But glorious Penhurst, Medwaies ivaters once 
With Mincius shall, and Mergeline advance ; 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 281 

The Shepherds Boy; best knoiven by that name 

Colin : upon his homely Oaten Reed. 

With Roman Tityrus may share in ffame ; 

But when a higher path hee strains to tread, 
This is my wonder : for ivho yet has seene 
Soe cleare a Poeme as his Faierie Queene ? 

The siveetest Swan of Avon j to the fair e 

And cruel Delia, passionatelie sings : 

Other mens iveaknesses and follies are 

Honour and Wit in him ; each Accent brings 
A sprig to croivne him Poet ; and contrive 
A Monument, in his oivne ivorke to live. 

Draiton is siveet and smooth : though not exact, 
Perhaps to stricter Eyes ; yet he shall live 
Beyond their Malice : to the Scene and Act, 
Read Comicke Shakespeare ; or if you vuould give 
Praise to a just Desert, crowning the Stage, 
See Beaumont, once the honour of his Age. 

The reverent Donne ; whose quill God purely fil'd, 
Liveth to his Character : so though he claim* d 
A greater glory, may not be exil'd 
This Commonwealth, &c. 

Here pause a little j for I vuould not cloy [verse 15] 

The curious Eare, with recitations ; 

And meerily looke at names ; attend with joy, 

Unto an English Quill, ivho rivall'd once 
Rome, not to make her blush ; and knowne of late 
Unenvied C cause unequaWd) Laureate. 

This, this was Jonson; ivho in his own name 

Carries his praise ; and may he shine alone ; 

I am not tyed to any gener all ffame, 

Nor fixed by the Approbation 

Of great ones : But I speake without pretence 
Hee was of English Dramatiskes, the Prince. 

Page 10. Come, my White-head, let our Muses. 

This was written by Sir Suvleon Steward, or Stewart. 
The numbers 1 and 2 of our text are twice incorrect in 



282 Appendix. 

original, viz. the ioth and 14th verses, each assigned to 
1 (Red-head), whereas they certainly belong to 2 (White- 
head). From third verse the figure " 1 " has unfortu- 
nately dropt in printing. By aid of Addit. MS. No. II, 
811, p. 36, we are enabled to correct a few other errors, 
some being gross corruptions of sense ; although, as a 
general rule, regarding poems that had appeared in 
print, the private MS. versions abound with blunders of 
the transcriber, additional to those of the original printer. 
It is, in the MS., entitled "A Dialogue between Pyrro- 
trichus and Leucothrix," the latter taking verses 2, 4, 6, 
8, 10, 12, and the final verse, 14 (marked Leuc). His 
earliest verse reads, in the MS., "And higher, Rufus, who 
would pass ; were some ; 3rd. v. 'Tis this that ; 6th. The 
Roman King ivho j be lopt ; Ruddy pates ; 8th v. Red 
Y\ke unto ; colour- 9th. Nay if ; doth beare no; side looks 
as fair; other doth my; bear my [?] ; ioth. Therefore, 
methinks ; Besides, of all the; 12th. N.B. — Yet ivhat 
thy head must buy ivith yeares, Crosses ; That hath na- 
ture giv'n j 13th, be tivo friendly peeres; let us joyn j 
make one beauteous ; 14th, [Leucothrix .~] We joyn' dour 
heads; beat them to heart [i.e. to boot] ; Was just but; 
of our head. In the Reresby Memoirs, we believe, is 
mention of an ancestress, who, about 161 9, married this 
(?) tf Sir Simeon Steward." 

Page 15. A Stranger coming to the town. 

In Wm. Hickes his Oxford Drollery, 167 1, in Part 3rd, 
("Poems made at Oxford, long since"), p. 157, this Epi- 
gram appears, with variations. The second verse reads : 
But being there a little 'while, || He met ivith one so right 
|| That upon the French Disease || It ivas his chance to 
light. The final couplet is : — The French- man's Arms are 
the sign tuithout, || But the French-man's harms are 
ivithin. 

Throughout the first half of the Seventeenth century 
the abundance of Epigrams produced is enormous; whole 
volumes of them, divided into Books, like J, Heywood's, 
being issued by poets of whom nothing else is known, 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 283 

except the name, unless Anthony a Wood has fortunately 
preserved some record. These have not been system- 
atically examined, as they deserve to be. Amid much 
rubbish good things lie hid. Perhaps the Editor may 
have more to say on them hereafter. Meanwhile, take 
this, by Robert Hayman, as alike a specimen and a sum- 
mary : — 

To the Reader : 

O Ermons and Epigrams have a like end, 
*^ To improve, to reprove, and to amend : 
Some passe without this vse, 'cause they are witty ; 
And so doe many Sermons, more's the pitty. 

(Quodlibets, 1628, Book iv., p. 59.) 



Page 20. List, your Nobles, and attend. 

This was (perhaps, by John Eliot,) certainly written 
in anticipatory celebration of the event described, the Re- 
ception of Queen Henrietta Maria by the citizens of Lon- 
don, 1625. The full title is this : — "The Author intend- 
ing to write upon the Duke of Buckingham, when he 
went to fetch the Queen, prepared a new Ballad for the 
Fidlers, as might hold them to sing between Dover and 
Callice." It is thus the poem reappears, with some vari- 
ations (beginning " Noiv list, you Lordlings, and attend,^ 
Unto a Ballad newly penned," &c.,) among the Choyce 
Poems, being Songs, Sonnets, Satyrs, and Elegies. By the 
Wits of both Universities, London," &c, 1661, p. 83. 
This was merely the earlier edition (of June, 1658), re- 
issued with an irregular extra sheet at beginning. The 
original title-page (two issued in 1658) was "Poems or 
Epigrams, Satyrs, Elegies, Songs and Sonnets, upon sev- 
eral persons and occasions. By no body must know 
whom, to be had every body knows where, and for any 
body knows what. [MS. The Author John Eliot.] 
London, Printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun in Ivie 
Lane, 1658." It is mentioned that " These poems were 
given me neer sixteen years since [therefore about 1642] 
by a Friend of the Authors, with a desire they might be 



284 Appendix. 

printed, but I conceived the Age then too squeemish to 
endure the freedom which the Author useth, and therefore 
I have hitherto smothered them, but being desirous they 
should not perish, and the world be deprived of so much 
clean Wit and Fancy, I have adventured to expose them 
to thy view ; . . . The Author writes not pedantically, 
but like a gentleman ; and if thou art a gentleman of thy 
own making thou wilt not mislike it." 

Verse 8th. Gondomar was the Spanish Ambassador at 
the Court of James I., to whom, with his " one word " of 
" Pyrates, Pyrates, Pyrates," we in great part owe the 
slaughter of Raleigh. Of course, the date '526, four lines 
lower, is a blunder. The rash visit to Madrid was in 
March, 1623. 

Title, and verse 8th. A Jack-a-Lent was a stuffed pup- 
pet, set up to be thrown at, during Lent. Perhaps it 
was a substitute for a live Cock ; or else the Cock-throw- 
ing may have been a later " improvement :" See Hone's 
Every Day Book, for an illustrated account, i. 249. Trace 
of the habit survives in our modern " Old Aunt Sally," 
by which yokels lose money at Races (although Dorset 
Rectors try to abolish Country Fairs, while encouragment 
is given to gambling at Chapel Bazaars with raffles for 
pious purposes). In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 
iii. sc. 3, Mrs. Page says to the boy, " You little Jack-a- 
Lent, have you been true to us ?" Quarles alludes to the 
practice : — 

Honv like a Jack-a-Lent 

He stands, for boys to spend their Shrove-tide throws, 

Or like a puppet made to frighten croivs. 

(J. O. HalliwelPs M. W. of W., Tallis ed., p. 127.) 

John Taylor (the Water-Poet) wrote a whim-wham 
entitled " Jack a Lent : his Beginning and Entertain- 
ment,^ about 1619, printed 1630 ; as "of the Jack of 
Jacks, great Jack a Lent." And Cleveland devoted thus 
a Cavalier's worn suit : "Thou shalt make Jaek-a-Lents 
and Babies first." {Poems, 1662, p. 56.) 

Martin Llewellyn's Song on Cock-throwing begins 
" Cock a doodle doe, 'tis the bravest game;" in his Men- 
Miracles, &c, 1646, p. 61. 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 285 

Page 31. A Story strange I will you tell. 

As to the burden (since some folks are inquisitive about 
the etymology of Down derry down, or Ran-dan, &c), 
we may note that in a queer book, The Loves of Hero 
and Leander, 1651, p. 3, is a six-line verse ending thus : 

Oh, Hero, Hero, pitty me, 
With a dildo, dildo, dildo dee" 

By which we may guess that the Rope-dancer's Song, in 
our text, was probably written about, or even before, 1651. 
Some among us (the Editor for one) saw Madame Sacchi 
in 1855 mount the rope, although she was seventy years 
old, as nimbly as when the first Napoleon had been her 
chief spectator. During the Commonwealth, rope-dan- 
cing and tumbling were tolerated at the Red- Bull 
Theatre, while plays were prohibited. See (Note to p. 
210) our Introduction to Westminster Drollery, pp. xv.- 
xx, and the Frontispiece reproduced from Kirkman's 
" Wits" 1673, representing sundry characters from dif- 
ferent " Drolls," grouped together, viz. : Falstaff and 
Dame Quickly, from "the Bouncing Knight ;" the 
French Dancing- Master, from the Duke of Newcastle's 
" Variety," Clause, from Beaumont and Fletcher's " Beg- 
gar's Bush," Tom Greene as Bubble the Clown uttering 
r Tu Quoque" from John Cooke's "City Gallant" (peeping 
through the chief-entrance, reserved for dignitaries) ; 
also Simpleton the Smith, and the Changeling, from two 
of Robert Cox's favourite Drolls. We add now, illus- 
trative of practical suppression under the Commonwealth, 
a contemporary record : — 

A Song. 

1. 
The fourteenth of September 
/ very tvell remember, 

When people had eaten and fed well, 
Many men, they say, 
Would needs go see a Play, 

But they satv a great rout at the red Bull. 



286 



Appendix. 



2. 

The Soldiers they came, 
(The blind and the lame) 

To visit and undo the Players j 
And women without Goivns, 
They said they ivould have Crowns j 

But they ivere no good Soothsayers. 

3- 
Then Jo : Wright they met, 
Yet nothing could get, 

And Tom Jay V th' same condition : 
The fire men they 
Would ha' made 'em a prey, 

But they scorn' d to make a petition. 

4- 
The Minstrills they 
Had the hap that day, 

(Well fare a very good token) 
To keep {from the chase) 
The fiddle and the case, 

For the instruments scap'd unbroken. 



[P- 8 9 .] 



The poor and the rich, 

The wh . . . and the b . . . ., 

Were every one at a losse, 
But the Players ivere all 
Turn'd (as weakest) to the wall, 

And 'tis thought had the greatest losse. \? cross.] 
(Wit's Merriment, or Lusty Drollery, 1656, p. 88.) 

One such raid on the poor actors (and probably at this 
very theatre, the Red Bull, St. John's Street, Clerk- 
enwell)is recorded, as of 20th December, 1649: — " Some 
Stage-players in St. John's-Street were apprehended by 
troopers, their clothes taken away, and themselves carried 
to prison" (Whitelocke's Memorials, 435, edit. 1733, cited 
by J. P. C, Annals, ii. 118). It was a serious business, 
as we see from the Ordinance of 11 Feb., 1647-8; the 
demolishing of seats and boxes, the actors " to be appre- 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 287 

hended and openly and publicly whipt in some market 
town ... to enter into recognizances with two sufficient 
sureties, never to act or play any Play or Interlude any 
more," &c. 

As for the Light-skirts, so elegantly referred to in the 
Song now reprinted (as far as we are aware, for the first 
time), they were certainly not actresses, but courtezans 
frequenting the place to ensnare visitors. Although 
English women did not publicly perform until after the 
Restoration, except on one occasion (of course, at Court 
Masques and private mansions, the Queen herself and 
her ladies had impersonated characters), yet so early as 
8th November, 1629, some French professional actresses 
vainly attempted to get a hearing at Blackfriars Theatre, 
and a fortnight later at the Red Bull itself, as three 
weeks afterwards at the Fortune. Evidently, they were 
unsuccessful throughout. We hear a good deal about 
the far-more objectionable " Ladies of Pleasure," who 
beset all places of amusement. Thomas Cranley, ad- 
dressing one such, in his Amanda, 1635, describes her 
several alluring disguises and habits : — 

The places thou dost usually frequent 

Is to some playhouse in an afternoon. 

And for no other meaning and intent 

But to get company to sup ivith soon j 

More changeable and wavering than the moon. 
And ivith thy vuanton looks attracting to thee 
The amorous spectators for to ivoo thee. 

Thither thou com'st in several forms and shapes 
To make thee still a stranger to the place, 
And train neiv lovers, like young birds, to scrapes, 
And by thy habit so to change thy face ; 
At this time plain, to-morroiv all in lace : 
Noiv in the richest colours to be had j 
The next day all in mourning, black and sad. &c. 

Page 33 . Oh fire, fire, fire, where ? 

Despite our repugnance to mutilate a text (see Introduc- 
tion to Westminster Drollery, p. 6 ; ditto to Merry Drol- 



288 Appendix. 

lery Compleat, pp. 38, 39, 40 ; and that to our present 
volume, foot-note in section third), a few letters have been 
necessarily suppressed in this piece of coarse humour. 
Verse fourth, on p. 33, refers to Ben Jonson's loss of 
valuable manuscripts by fire, and his consequent "Exe- 
cration upon Vulcan," before June, 1629; an event 
deeply to be regretted : also to the whimsical account of 
the fire on London Bridge (seeMerrv Drollery, Compleat, 
pp. 87, 369, and Additional Note in present volume, tra- 
cing the poem to 1651, and the event to 1633). 

An amusing poem was written, by Thomas Randolph, 
on the destruction of the Mitre Tavern at Cambridge, 
about 1630 ; it begins, " Lament, lament, you scholars 
all.' 5 (See A Crew of kind London Gossips, 1663, p. 72). 

Page 38. In Eighty Eight, ere I ivas born. 

Also given later, in Merry Drollery, 1661, p. 77, and 
Ditto, Compleat, p. 82 and 369. Compare the Harleian 
MS. version, No. 791, fol. 59, given in our Appendix to 
Westminster Drollery, p. 38, with note. The romance of 
'• the Knight of the Sun is mentioned by Sir Tho. Over- 
bury in his Characters, as fascinating a Chambermaid, 
and tempting her to turn lady-errant. " The book is bet- 
ter known under the title of The Mirror of Princely Deedes 
and Knighthood, wherein is shewed the worthinesse of 
The Knight of the Sunne, &c. It consists of nine parts, 
which appear to have been published at intervals between 
1585, and 1601." (Lucasta, &c, edit. 1864, p. 13.) 

Page 40. And ivill this Wicked World, &c. 

We never met this elsewhere : it was probably written 
either in 1605, or almost immediately afterwards. Among 
Robert Hayman's Quodlibets, 1628, in Book Second, No. 
49, is an Epigram (p. 27) : — 

Of the Gunpowder Holly-day, the 5th 
of November. 

The Powder- Traytors, Guy Vaux, and his mates, 
Who by a Hellish plot sought Saints estates, 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 289 

Haue in our Kalendar imto their shame, 
A ioyful Holy-day cald by their Name. 

Jeremiah Wells has among his Poems on Several Occa- 
sions, 1667, one, at p. 9, "On Gunpowder Treason," be- 
ginning "Hence dull pretenders unto villany" which 
solemnly conjures up a picture of what might have 
ensued if (what even Baillie Nicol Jarvie would call) the 
"awfu' bleeze" had taken place. [The same rare vol- 
ume is interesting, as containing a Poem on the Rebuild- 
ing of London, after the fire of 1666, p. 112, beginning 
"What a Devouring Fire but t'other day !"] 

With Charles Lamb, we have always regretted the 
failure of the Gunpowder Plot. It would have been a 
magnificent event, fully equal to Firmillian's blowing up 
the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, at Badajoz; and the loss 
of life to all the Parliament Members would have been 
a cheap price, if paid, for such a remembrance. The 
worst of all is, that, having been attempted, there is no 
likelihood of any subsequent repetition meeting with 
better success. Hinc illce lachrymte ! Faux, Vaux, or 
Fawkes must have been a noble, though slightly mis- 
guided, enthusiast; for he had intended to perish, like 
Samson, with his victims. All good Protestants now ad- 
mire the Nazarite, although they bon-fire-raise poor 
Guide But then he failed in his work, while the other 
slayer of Philistines attained success : which perhaps ac- 
counts for the different apotheosis. As Lady Macbeth 
puts it : "The attempt, and not the deed, confounds us !" 

Page 44. A Maiden of the Pure Society. 

A version of this epigram is among the MSS. at end of a 
volume of " Various Poems," in the British Museum : 
Press-mark, Case 39. a. These have been printed by 
Fred. J. Furnival, Esq., for the Ballad Society, as "Love 
Poems and Humorous Ones," 1874. "A Puritane with 
one of hir societie," is No. 26, p. 22. 

Page 52. He that a Tinker, &c. 
This re-appears in the Antidote against Melancholy, 1661 
p. 65 ; and, with music, in the 17 19 Pills top. Mel., iii. 52 

U 



290 Appendix. 

Page 55- Idol of our Sex I &c. 
This Lady Carnarvon was the wife of Robert Dormer, 
second Baron Dormer, created Vise. Ascott, or Herld, 
and Earl of Carnarvon, 2d Aug., 1628. Obiit 1643. He 
fell at the Battle of Newbury, 20th Sept. (See Claren- 
don's History of the Rebellion, Book vii. p. 350, edit. 1720, 
where his merits are recognized.) Her name was Anna- 
Sophia, daughter of Philip, Earl of Pembroke. The child 
mentioned in the poem was their son, Charles Dormer, 
who died in 1709, when the Viscounty and Earldom be- 
came extinct. The poem was written at his birth, on 
January 1st. 

Page 57. Uds body kins ! Chill work no more. 

We find this, a year earlier, (an inferior version, lacking 
third verse, but longer,) as Cockbodykins, chill, &c, in 
Wit's Interpreter, p. 143, 1655; and p. 247, 1671. It is a 
valuable, because trustworthy and graphic, record of the 
troubles falling upon those who tried to labour on, despite 
the stir of civil war. 4th verse, " that a vet," seems cor- 
ruption of that is fetched ; horses in a hole (W. Int.) ; 
vange thy note, is take thy note. (do). Prob. date, 1647. 

The Second Part. 

THen straight came ruffling to my dore, 
Some dozens of these rogues, or more j 
So zausie they be groivn. 
Facks\_,~\ if they come, doivn they sit, 
They' I never ask me leave one whit, 

They' I take all for their ovun. 

Then ich provision straight must make, 
And from my Chymney needs must take, 

And vlitch both pure and good, [a flitch] 
Oh I 'tivould melt a Christians heart to see, 
That such good Bacon spoil' 'd should be, 

*Tivas as red as any blood. 

But in it ivould, whether chud or not, 
Together with Beans into the pot, 
As siveet as any viggs. 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 291. 

And token chave done all that I am able, 
They' I slat it down all under table, 
And zwear they be no Pigs. 

Then Ize did intreat their worships to be quiet, 
And ich would strive to mend their diet, 

And they shall have finer feeding, 
They zwear goddam thee for a boor, 
Wee' I gick thee raskal out a door, 

And teach thee better breeding. 

Then on the fire they \_do~\ put on 
A piece of beef, or else good mutton, 

No, no, this is no meat. 
Forsooth they must have finer food, 
A good vat hen with all her brood ; 

And then perhaps they'l eat. 

But of late ich had a crew together, 

They were meer devils, ich ask'd them whether 

That they were not of our nation. 
Good Lord defend us from all zuch, 
They zaid they were wild Irish, or else Dutch, 

They were of the Devils generation. 

And when these raskals went away, 
What e're you thing they did me repay 

Ich will not you deceive. 
Facks\f\ just as folks go to a vaire, 
They vaidled up my goods and ware, 

And so they took their leave. 

O what a clutter they did make 
Our house for Babel they did take, 

We could not understand a jot. 
Yet they did know what did belong 
To drink and zwear in our own tongue, 

Such language they had a got. 

Nor home ich any zafe aboad, 
If that Ise chance to go abroad, 

These rogues will come to spy me ; 

U 2 



292 



Appendix. 



Then zurrah, zurrah, quoth they, tarry, 
We knotv false letters you do carry, 
And so they come to try me. 

For as svuift as any lightning goes 
Straight all their hand into my hose, 

There out they pull my purse. 
O zurrah, zurrah, this is it, 
Your Letters are in silver ivrit ; 

You may go take your course. 

A Trouper t'other day did greet me, 

Lost line.] 

But could you guesse the reason, 
Thou art, quoth he, a rebel, Knave, 
And zo thou dost thy zelf behave, 

For thou doest ivhistle treason. 

Nor ivas this raskal much to blame, 
For all his mates zivore just the zame, 

Thatich ivas fain to do. 
Ich humble pardon of him sought, 
And gave him money for my fault, 

And glad I could scape so too. 

(Wits Interpreter, 250, 1 67 1 ed.) 

This is, veritably, a "document in madness" of such 
civil wars and military licence. It reads like the genuine 
narratives of Prussian brutality and outrage during the 
occupation of Alsace and Lorraine : which is hereafter to 
be bitterly avenged. 



Page 60. / keep my horse, I keep, &c. 

This lively ditty is sung by Latrocinio in the comedy of 
"The Widow," A61 iii. sc. 1, produced about 1616, and 
written by John Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and Thomas 
Middleton. The song bears trace of Fletcher's hand 
(more, we believe, than of Jonson's). It has a rollicking 
freedom that made it a favourite. We meet it in Wit's 
Interpreter, 1655, p. 6g; 1671, p. 175; and elsewhere. 
See Dyce's Middleton, iii. 383, and Dodsley's Old Plays, 
1744, vi. 34- 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 293 

Page 61. There is not halfe so ivarm afire. 

This re-appears, with variations and twelve additional 
lines (inferior), in Westminster-Drollery, 1671, i. 102; 
where is the corrupt text "and daily pays us ivith ivhat 
is." Our present text gives us the true word, "dully." 



Page 62. Fuller ofivish, than hope, &c. 

Fuller's book, "A Pisgah sight of Palestine," was pub- 
lished about 1649. The epitaph "Here lies Fuller's 
earth," is well known. He died in 1661. 

Page 63. Cloris, noiv thou art fled aivay. 

The author of this song was Dr. Henry Hughes. 
Henry Lawes gives the music to it, in his "Ay res," 1669, 
Bk. iii. p. 10. It is also in J. P.'s Sportive Wit, 1656, p. 
15 ; the Loyal Garland (Percy Soc. Reprint of 1686 edit. 
xxix. 67); Pills to p. Mel., 1719, iii. 331. Sometimes 
attributed to Sir R[obert] A[ytoun]. 

In Sporti-ve Wit there are variations as well as an 
Answer, which we here give. The different title seems 
consequent on the Answer presupposing that Amintas has 
not died, merely disappeared. It is " A Shepherd fallen 
in Love : A Pastoral." The readings are : Lambkins 
folloiv j They're gone, they're ; Dog hoivling lyes, While 
he laments ivith ivoful cryes ; Oh Cloris, Cloris, I decay, 
And forced am to cry ivell, &c. Sixth verse there 
omitted. It has, however, on p. 16 : — 

The Ansiver. 

[1656.] 

CLoris, since thou art gone astray, 
Amyntas Shepherd' s fled aivay ; 
And all the joys he ivont to spye 
I' th' pretty babies of thine eye, 
Are gone ; and she hath none to say 
But ivho can help ivhat will away, will away ? 

U3 



294 

The Green on which it ivas her [ ? his~\ chance 

To have her hand first in a dance, 

Among the merry Maiden-crue, 

Now making her nought but sigh and rue 

The time she ere had cause to say [p. 17.] 

Ah, ivho can help ivhat will away, will away ? 

The Lawn with %uhich she'ivont to deck 

And circle in her whiter neck ; 

Her Apron lies behinde the door ; 

The strings won't reach now as before : 

Which makes her oft cry well-a-day : 

But ivho can help ivhat will away ? 

He often sivore that he would leave me, 
Ere of my heart he could bereave me : 
But when the Signe ivas in the tail, 
He kneiv poor Maiden-flesh ivas frail ; 
And laughs noiv I have nought to say, 
But ivho can help ivhat will away. 

But let the blame upon me lie, 

I had no heart him to denie : 

Had I another Maidenhead, 

I'd lose it ere I went to bed : 

For ivhat can all the world more say, 

Than who can help ivhat will away ? 

(Sportive Wit ; or, The Muses' Merriment.) 

Page 68. / tell you all, both great and small. 

Also in Captain William Hickes' London Drollery, 1673, 
p. 179, where it is entitled "Queen Elizabeth's Song." 
The dance tune Sallanger's (or more commonly Sellen- 
ger's) Round is given in Chappell's Pop. Music, O. T., p. 
69. The name is corrupted from St. Leger's Round; 
as in Yorkshire the Doncaster race is called the Sillinger, 
or Sellenger, to this day. 

Page 70. When James in Scotland first began. 
Not yet found elsewhere, in MS. or print. The sixth 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 295 

verse refers to King James the First making so many 
Knights, on insufficient ground, that he incurred ridicule. 
Allusions are not infrequent in dramas and ballads. Here 
is the most noteworthy of the latter. It is in Additional 
MS. No. 5,832, fol. 205, British Museum. 

Verses upon the order for making Knights of such per- 
sons who had £4.6 per annum in King James I.'s time. 

COme all you farmers out of the country, 
Carters, plowmen, hedgers and all, 
Tom, Dick and Will, Ralph, Roger and Humfrey, 

Leave off your gestures rusticall. 
Bidd all your home-sponne russetts adue, 
And sute your selves in fashions new ; 
Honour invites you to delights : 
Come all to Court and be made Knights. 

2. 

He that hath fortie pounds per annum 

Shalbe promoted from the ploive : 
His wife shall take the wall of her grannum, 

Honour is sould soe dog-cheap novo. 
Though thoiv hast neither good birth nor breeding, 
If thou hast money, thoiv art sure of speeding. 

3- 
Knighthood in old time was counted an honour, 

Which the best spiritts did not disdayne ; 
But novo it is us'd in so base a manner, 

That it's noe creditt, but rather a staine : 
Tush, it's noe matter what people doe say, 
The name of a Knight a whole village will sivay. 

4- 
Shepheards, leave singing your past or all sonnetts, 

And to learne complements sheiv your endeavours : 
Cast of\_f~\ for ever your two shillinge bonnetts, 

Cover your coxcombs with three pound beavers. 
Sell carte and tarrboxe new coaches to buy, 

Then, "Good your Worship'' the vulgar ivill cry. 

U4 



296 Appendix, 

5- 

And thus unto worshipp being advanced, 

Keepe all your tenants in awe ivith your frownes ; ] 
And let your rents be yearly inhaunced, 

To buy your new-moulded maddams new goivns. 
Joan, Sisse, and Nell shalbe all ladified, 
Instead of hay-carts, in coaches shall ryde, 

6, 

Whatever you doe, have a care of expenses, 

In hospitality doe not exceed : 
Greatnes of followers belongeth to princes : 

A Coachman and footmen are all that you need : 
And still observe this, let your servants meate lacke, 

To keep brave apparel upon your ivives backe. 

[Additional stanza from Mr. Hunter's MS.] 

7- 

Novo to conclude, and shutt up my sonnett, 
Leave of the Cart-whip, hedge-bill andflaile, 

This is my counsell, think well upon it, 

Knighthood and honour are novo put to saile. 

Then make haste quickly, and lett out your far mes, 

And take my advice in blazing your armes. 
Honor invites, &c. 

(Shakespeare Soc., 1846, pp. 145-6, J. O. Halliwell's 
Commentary on Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. ii. sc. 1, 
" These Knights will hack." Also his notes in Tallis's 
edit., of the same, n. d., pp. 122-3. William Chappell, in 
Pop. Music O. T., p. 327, gives the tune.) 



Page 72. The Chandler drew near his end. 

Another tolerable Epigram on a Chandler meets us, be- 
ginning e( How might his days end that made weeks 
[wicks] ?" among the Epitaphs of Wits Recreations, 
3640-5 (Reprint, p. 271). 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 297 

Page 73. Farre in the Forrest of Arden. 

This is one of Michael Drayton's Pastorals, printed 
in 1593, in the Third Eclogue, and entitled Doivsabell. 
See Percy's Reliques, vol. i. bk. 3, No. 8, 2nd edit. 1767, 
for remarks on variations, amounting to a remodelling, of 
this charming poem. We are glad to know that Mr. 
James Russell Smith is preparing a new edition of 
Michael Drayton's voluminous works, to be included in 
the Library of Old Authors. Drayton suppressed his 
couplet poem of " Endimion and Phcebe :" Ideas Latmvs. 
It has no date, but was cited by Lodge in 1595, and has 
been reprinted by J. P. Collier; one of his handsome and 
carefully printed quartos, a welcome boon. 

Page 78. On the twelfth day of December. 

This ballad, a very early example of the Doivn doivn 
derry burden, is not yet found elsewhere. It refers to the 
expedition against Scotland (then in alliance with Henry 
II. of France) made by the Protector, Edward, Duke of 
Somerset, in 1547, the first (not "fourth ") year of Ed- 
ward Vlth's reign. The battle was fought on the "Black 
Saturday, as it was long remembered, the tenth day of 
September (not of " December," as the ballad mis-states 
it to have been). Terrible and remorseless was the 
slaughter of the ill-armed Scots, after they had impru- 
dently abandoned their excellent hilly position, by the 
well-appointed English horsemen. The prisoners taken 
amounted to about fifteen hundred ("we found above 
twenty of their villains to one of their gentlemen," says 
Patten), among whom was the Earl of Huntley, Lord 
Chancellor of Scotland, who on the previous day had 
sent a personal challenge to Somerset, asking to decide 
the contest by single combat : an offer which was not 
unreasonably declined, the Protector declaring that he 
desired no peace but such as he might win by his sword. 
"And thou, trumpet," he told Huntley's herald, " say to 
thy master, he seemeth to lack wit to make this challenge 
to me, being of such estate by the sufferance of God as to 
have so weighty a charge of so precious a jewel, the gov- 



2g8 Appendix. 

ernment of a King's person, and then the protection of 
all his realms." We learn that the Scots slain were ten- 
fold the number of the prisoners taken. This battle of 
" Muskleburgh Field " (nearly the same locality as the 
battle of Prestonpans, wherein Prince Charles Edward in 
1745 defeated Colonel Gardiner and his English troops), 
known also as of Fawside Brae, or of Pinkie, is described 
with unusual precision by an eye-witness : See The Ex- 
pedition into Scotland of the most ivorthily -fortunate Prince 
Edward Duke of Somerset, uncle to our most noble 
Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty Edward the VI., &c, 
made in the first year of his Majesty's most prosperous 
reign, and set out by way of Diary, by W. Patten, Lon- 
doner. First published in 1548, this was reprinted in 
Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1798. 
This old ballad is not included by Dalyell, who probably 
knew not of its existence. 

Page 80. In CeY\a\? s face~\ a question did arise. 

By Thomas Carew, written before 1638. In Addit. 
MSS. No. 11,811, fol. 10; No. 22,118, fol. 43; also in 
Wits Recreations (Repr., p. 19); Roxb. Libr. Carew, p. 
6, &c 

Page 81. Blacke Eyes, in your dark Orbs doe lye. 

By James Howell, Historiographer to Charles II., 
and author of the celebrated Epistolce Ho-Eliance, 1645, 
1647, I0 5o, and 1655. He died in November, 1666; 
according to Anthony a Wood, (whose account of him in 
the Athente Oxonienses, iii. 744, edit. 18 17, is given by 
Edward Arber in his excellent English Reprints, vol. viii, 
1869, with a welcome promise of editing the said Epis- 
tolce). This poem of " Black eyes," &c, occurs among 
Howell's poems collected by Sergeant- Major Peter 
Fisher, p. 68, 1663 ; again re-issued (the same sheets) as 
"Mr. Howell's Poems upon divers Emergent Occasions ; 
Printed by James Cottrel, and dated 1664. It is also 
found in C. F.'s Wit at a Venture ; or, Clio's Privy Gar- 
den, containing Songs and Poems on Several Occasions, 



Choyce Drollery, 1656, 299 

Never before in Print" (which statement is incorrect, 
as usual). Our text is the earliest we know in type. The 
only variations, in HoivelPs Poems, are : 1st line, doth 
lie -, 4th verse, And by those spells I am possest. 

Page 83. We read of Kings, and Gods, &c. 

This is another of the charming poems by Thomas 
Carew, always a favourite with his own generation (few 
MS. or printed Collections being without many of them), 
and deserving of far more affectionate perusal in our own 
time than he generally meets. It is in Addit. MS. No. 
11, 811, fol. 6b., entitled there "His Love Neglected." 
Elsewhere, as " A Cruel Mistress." 

Page 84. What ill luck had I, Silly Maid, &c. 

Although closely resembling the Catch <( What Fortune 
had I, poor Maid as I am," of 166 1 Antidote ag. Melan- 
choly, p, 74, and Merry Drollery ii. 152 (equal to p. 341 of 
editions 1670 and 1691), this song is virtually distinct, 
and probably was the earlier version in date. One has 
been evidently borrowed or adapted from the other. 

Page 85. I never did hold all that glisters, &c. 

This vigorous expression of opinion from a robust nature, 
uncorrupted amid a conventionalized, treacherous, and 
selfishly-cruel community, is a valuable record of the true 
Cavalier " all of the olden time." We have never met it 
elsewhere. He has no half-likings, no undefined sus- 
picions, and admits of no paltering with the truth, or 
shirking of one's duty. As we read we behold the honest 
man before us, and remember that it was such as he who 
made our England what she is : — 

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, 
I see the Lords of human kind pass by. 

The contemplation of such brave spirits may help to nerve 
fresh readers to emulate their virtues, despite the sickly 



300 Appendix. 

fancies or grovelling politics and social theories of degen- 
erate days. The singer may be somewhat overbearing 
in announcement of his preferences : 

Just this 

Or that in you disgusts me ; here you miss, 
Or there exceed the mark, — 

But, if he errs at all, it is on the safe side. 

Page 88. No Gypsie nor no Blackamore. 

Composers and arrangers of such collections as this Drol- 
lery seem to have often chosen pieces simply for contrast. 
Thus, after the manly directness of " The Doctor's Touch- 
stone," we find the vilely mercenary husband here ex- 
hibited, and followed by the truthful description (justifi- 
able, although coarsely outspoken) of "The baseness of 
Whores." Such were they of old : such are they ever. 

Page 92. Let not Siveet Saint, &c. 

Like the three preceding poems, not yet found elsewhere, 
but worthy of preservation. 

Page 93. Hozv happy" s that Prisoner. 

Written "by a Person of Quality :" whom we suspect to 
have been Sir Francis Wortley, but without evidence 
to substantiate the guess. This is the earliest appear- 
ance in print, known to us, of this characteristic outburst 
of Cavalier vivacity, which re-appears as the Musician's 
Song, in "Cromwell's Conspiracy," 1660, Act iii. sc. 2; 
and Merry Drollery, 1661, p. 101. (See also M. D. C, 
pp. 107, 373). As to the introduction of the several 
ancient philosophers (referred to in former Appendix, p. 
373), compare the delightful Chanson a Boire, 



Je cherche en vin la verite, 
Si le vin n'aide a ma foiblesse, 

Toute la docte antiquite 
Dans le vin puisa la sagesse, 






Choyce Drollery, 1656. 301 

Oui c'est par le bon vin que le bon sens eclat e, 
J'en atteste Hypocrate, 

Qui dit qu'il fait a chaque mois 
Du moins s'enivrer une fois, &c. 

(The other twelve verses are given complete in "Brallag- 
han j or, the Deipnosophists," 1845, pp. 198-203, with a 
clever verse-translation, by the foremost of linguistic 
scholars now alive — the friend of Talfourd and of Dr. W. 
Maginn — at whom many nowadays presume to scoff, and 
whom Benchers defame and banish themselves from.) 

Page 97. Fire ! Fire ! hoiv I burn, &C. 

Also in Windsor Drollery, 1672, p. 126, as " Fire ! Fire ! 
lo here I burn in my desire," &c. And in Henry Bold's 
Latine Songs, 1685, p. 139, where it is inserted, to be 
alongside of this parody on it by him, song xlvii., or a 

MOCK. 

1. 

Ire, Fire, 
Is there no help for thy desire ? 
Are tears all spent ? Is Humber loiv? 
Doth Trent stand still ? Doth Thames not floiv? 
Though all these can't thy Fearer cure, 
Yet Tyburn is a Cooler lure, 
And since thou can'st not quench thy Fire, 
Go hang thy self, and thy desire I 

2. 
Fire, fire, 
Here's one [still'] left for thy desire, 
Since that the Rainbozv in the skye, 
Is bent a deluge to deny, 
As loth for thee a God should Lye. 

Let gentle Rope come dangling doivn, 
One born to hang shall never droivn, 
And since thou can'st not quench the Fire, 
Go hang thy self, and thy desire ! 

{Latine Songs, 1685, p. 140.) 



F 



302 Appendix. 

Page 98. 'Tis not hoiv ivitty, nor hoiv free. 

A year earlier, this had appeared in Wit's Interpreter, 
1655, p. 4 (1671, p. 108), entitled "What is most to be 
liked in a Mistress." Robt. Jamieson quotes it, from 
Choyce Drollery, in his Pop. Bds., 1806, ii. 309. We be- 
lieve it to be by the same author as the poem next follow- 
ing, and regret that they remain anonymous. Both are 
of a stately beauty, and recall to us those Cavalier Ladies 
with whose portraits Vandyck adorned many family 
mansions. 

Page 99. She's not the fairest of her name. 

One clue, that may hereafter guide us to the authorship, 
we know the lady's name. It was Freeman. This poem 
also had appeared a year earlier, at least, in Wit's Inter- 
preter, 1655, p. 55 ( ; 1671 ed., p. 161). Also in Wit and 
Drollery, 1 66 1, p. 162 ; in Oxford Drollery, part ii. 1671, 
p. 87; and in Loyal Garland, 1686, as "The Platonick 
Lover" (reprinted by Percy Soc, xxix. 64). There 
should be a comma in fifth line, after the word Constancy. 
Various readings : — Verse 2, meanest wit; and yet a; 3, 
His dear addresses : walls be brick or stone. 



Page 100. 'Tis late and cold, stir up the fire. 

This Song, by John Fletcher, in his Lover's Progress, 
Act iii. sc. 1., before 1625. The music is found in Addi- 
tional MS. No. 11,608 (written about 1656), fol. 20; 
there called " Myne Ost's Song, sung in ye Mad Lover 
[wrong : a different play], set by Robt. Johnson." It 
re-appears in Wit and Drollery 1661, p. 212; in the 
Academy of Complements, 1670, p. 175, &c. It is the 
Song of the Dead Host, whose return to wait upon his 
guests and ask their aid to have his body laid in conse- 
crated ground, is so humorously described. His fore- 
warnings of death to Cleander are, to our mind, of thrilling 
interest. These scenes were Sir Walter Scott's favour- 
ites ; but Leigh Hunt, perversely, could see no merit in 
them. We believe that the tinge of sepulchral dullness 



Choyce Drollery, 1656. 303 

in Mine Host enhances the vividness of the incidents, 
like the taciturnity of Don Guzman's stony statue in 
ShadwelPs " Libertine." 

Thus the hundred-paged volume of Choyce Drollery, 
1656, — " Delicates served up by frugall Messes, as aiming 
at thy satisfaction not saciety," — comes to an end, with 
Beaumont and Fletcher. On them remembrance loves 
to rest, as the fitting representatives of that class of 
courtly gentlemen, poets, wits, and scholars, who were, to 
a great extent, even then, fading away from English 
society. To them had been visible no phase of the Re- 
bellion, and they probably never conceived that it was 
near. Beaumont, with his statelier reserve, and his ten- 
dency to quiet musing, fostered "under the shade of 
melancholy boughs " at Grace-Dieu, had early passed 
away, honoured and lamented ; a month before his friend 
Shakespeare went to rest : Shakespeare, who, having 
known half a century of busy life, felt contented, doubt- 
less, to fulfil the wish that he had long before expressed, 
himself, almost prophetically : — 

" Let me not live" — 
Thus his good melancholy oft began, .... 
(t 'After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff 
Of younger spirits, ivhose apprehensive senses 
All but neiv things disdain ; ivhose judgments are 
Mere fathers of their garments ; ivhose constancies 
Expire before their fashions :" — this he ivished. 

Fletcher survived nine years, and battled on with some- 
what of spasmodic action ; at once widowed and orphaned 
by the death of his close friend and work-fellow ; winning 
fresh triumphs, it is true, and leaving many a trace of his 
bright genius like a gleam of heaven's own light across 
the sadness and corruption of an imaginary world, that 
was not at all unreal in heroism or in wickedness. He 
also passed away while young; a few months later than the 
time when Charles the First came to the throne, suddenly 
elevated by the death of his father James, bringing 
abruptly to a consummation that marriage with the 



304 Appendix. 

French Princess which did so much to lead him and his 
country into ruin. The year 1625 was the separating 
date between the autumnal ripeness and the chill of fruit- 
less winter. A sunny glow remains on Fletcher to the 
last. With him it fades, and the world that he had 
known is changed. 



[End of Notes to Choyce Drollery.] 



APPENDIX 



305 



APPENDIX. Part 2. 



ANTIDOTE AGAINST MELANCHOLY. 1661. 

Gratiano. — " Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, 
Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice 
By being peevish ? I tell thee what, Antonio, — 
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks ; — 
There are a sort of men, whose visages 
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond, 
And do a wilful stillness entertain, 
With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit ; 
As who should say, ' I am Sir Oracle, 
And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark !' " 

{Merchant of Venice, Act i. sc. i.) 

WE have already, in a brief Introduction, (pp. 
105-110), explained our reason for adding 
all that was necessary to complete this work ; a large 
portion having been anticipated in Merry Drollery of 
the same year, 1661. In the Postscript (pp. 161-165), 
we endeavoured to trace the authorship of the entire 
collection ; leaving to these following notes, and those 
attached to M. Drollery, Compleat, the search for sep- 
arate poems or songs. Also, on pp. 166-175, we 
traced the history of " Arthur o' Bradley," delaying 
the important song of his Wedding (from an original 
of the date 1656), unto Part IV. of our Appendix. 
x 



306 



Appendix. 



To no other living writer are we lovers of old litera- 
ture more deeply indebted than to the veteran John 
Payne Collier, who is now far advanced in his eighty- 
seventh year, and whose intellect and industry remain 
vigorously employed at this great age : one proof of the 
fact being his new edition of Shakespeare (each play in 
a separate quarto, issued to private subscribers), begun 
in January, 1875, and already the Comedies are finished, 
in the third volume. Among his numerous choice re- 
prints of rare originals, his series of the more than 
"Seven Early Poetical Miscellanies " was a work of great- 
est value. To these, with his new "Shakespeare" the 
interesting "Old Man's Diary," his "Bibliographical and 
Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Lan- 
guage," his "Annals of the Stage," "The Poetical Decam- 
eron" his charming "Book of Roxburghe Ballads" 
1847, his "Broadside Black- Letter-Ballads" 1868, and 
other labours, no less than to his warmth of heart and 
friendly encouragement by letters, the present Editor 
owes many happy hours, and for them makes grateful 
acknowledgment. 

About the year 1870, J. P, Collier issued to private 
subscribers his very limited and elegant Reprint, in quarto, 
of "An Antidote against Melancholy," 1661. This is 
already nearly as unattainable as the original. 

J. P. Collier gave no notes to his Reprint of the 
" Antidote," but, in the brief Introduction thereunto, he 
mentioned that : — " This poetical tract has been selected 
for our reprint on account of its rarity, the excellence of 
the greater part of its contents, the high antiquity of some 
of them, and from the fact that many of the ballads and 
humorous pieces of versification are either not met with 
elsewhere, or have been strangely corrupted in repetition 
through the press. Two or three of them are used by 
Shakespeare, and the word ' incarnadine ' [see our p. 148] 
is only found in ' Macbeth a (A. ii., sc. 2), in CareVs 
poems, and in this tract : here we have it as the name of 
a red wine ; and nobody hitherto has noticed it in that 
sense. 

"When Ritson published his 'Robin -Hood' in 1795, 
he relied chiefly upon the text of the famous ballad of 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 307 

'Arthur o' Bradley/ as he discovered it in the miscellany 
before us [See our Merry Drollery, Compleat, pp. 312, 
399; also, in present volume, p. 166, and Additional Note] ; 
but, learned in such matters as he undoubtedly was, he 
was not aware of the very early period at which ' Arthur 
o' Bradley* was so popular as to be quoted in one of our 
Old Moralities, which may have been in existence in the 
reigns of Henry VI. or Henry VII., which was acted while 
Henry VIII. or Edward VI. were on the throne, and 
which is contained in a manuscript bearing the date of 

1579- 

" The few known copies of ' An Antidote against Melan- 
choly' are dated 1661, the year after the Restoration, 
when lawless licence was allowed both to the press and in 
social intercourse ; and, if we permitted ourselves to mu- 
tilate our originals, we might not have reproduced such 
coarseness ; but still no words will be found which, even 
a century afterwards, were not sometimes used in. private 
conversation, and which did not even make their appear- 
ance at full length in print.. Mere words may be said to 
be comparatively harmless ; but when, as in the time of 
Charles II, they were employed as incentives to vice and 
laxity of manners, they become dangerous. The repeti- 
tion of them in our day, in a small number of reprints, 
can hardly be offensive to decorum, and unquestionably 
cannot be injurious to public morals. We always address 
ourselves to the students of our language and habits of 
life." 



Page 113 (original, p. 1). Not drunken, nor sober, &c. 

Joseph Ritson gave this Bacchanalian chant in the 
second volume of his "English Songs," p. 58, 1783. 
Forty-six verses, out of the seventy, had been repeated in 
the "Collection of Old Ballads," 1723-25, (which Ambrose 
Philips and David Mallet may have edited,) "The Ex-Ale- 
tation of Ale " is in vol. iii. p. 166. Part, if not all, must 
have been in existence fully ten years before it appeared 
in the " Antidote," as we find " O Ale ab alendo, thou 
Liquor of life ! " with music by John Hilton, in his "Catch 

X 2 



308 Appendix. 

that Catch Can," p. 5, 1652. It is also in Wit's Merri- 
ment j or, Lusty Drollery, 1656, p. 1 18; eight verses only. 
These are : 1. Not drunken; 2. But yet to commend it; 
3. But yet, by your leave; 4. It makes a man merry; 5. 
The old wife whose teeth ; 6. The Ploughman, the La- 
b'rer ; 7. The man that hath a black blous to his wife ; 8. 
With that my friend said, &c. Still earlier, the poem had 
appeared, imperfectly, in a four-paged quarto pamphlet, 
dated 1642 (along with The Battle fought between the 
Norfolk Cock and the Wisbeach Cock," see M. D. C, p. 
242) as by Thomas Randall, i.e. Randolph. Accord- 
ingly, it has been included (34 verses only) in the 1875 
edition of his Works, p. 662. We personally attach no 
weight to the pamphlet's ascription of it to Randolph, 
(who died in March, 1634-5). It is far more likely to have 
been the work of Samuel Rowlands, in whose Creiv of 
Kind London Gossips, 1663, we meet it, p. 129- 141, and 
whose style it more closely resembles. Some poems duly 
assigned to Randolph are in the same volume, but the 
" Exaltation of Ale " is not thus distinguished. There 
are seventy-two verses given, and the motto is Tempus 
edax rerum, &c. We have not been able to consult an 
earlier edition of S. Rowland's "Crezu," &c, about 1650. 
So long afterwards as 1788, we find an abbreviated 
copy of the song, six verses, in Lackington's " British 
Songster," p. 202, entitled "A Tankard of Ale." The 
first verse runs thus : — 

"Not drunk, nor yet sober, but brother to both, 
I met ivith a man upon Aylesbury Vale, 

I satv in his face that he ivas in good case 
To go and take part of a tankard of ale." 

Omitting all sequence of narrative, the other verses are 
adapted from the Antidote's 21st, 19th, 10th, 26th, and 
50th ; concerning the hedger, beggar, widow, clerk, and 
amicable conclusion over a tankard of ale. In a Con c vi c vial 
Songster, of 1807, by Tegg, London, these six are given 
with addition of another as fifth : — 

The old parish Vicar, ivhen he's in his liquor, 
Will merrily at his parishioners rail, 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 309 

" Come, pay all your tithes, or I'll kiss all your wives," 
When once he shakes hands ivith a tankard of ale. 

It had appeared in a Chap-book (circa 1794, according 
to Wm. Logan; see his amusing "Pedlar's Pack/' pp. 
224-6), with other five verses inserted before the Finale. 
We give them to complete the tale : — 

There's the blacksmith by trade, a jolly brisk blade, 
Cries, "Fill up the bumper, dear host, from the pail ;" 

So cheerful he'll sing, and make the house ring, 
When once he shakes hands ivith a tankard of ale. 
Laru la re, laru, ®c. So cheerful, &c. 

There's the tinker, ye ken, cries te old kettles to mend," 
With his budget and hammer to drive in the nail ; 

Will spend a whole croivn, at one sitting doivn, 
When once he shakes hands ivith a tankard of ale. 
Laru, &fc. 

There's the mason, brave John, the carver of stone, 
The Master's grand secret he'll never reveal ; 

Yet hoiv merry is he ivith his lass on his knee, 

When once he shakes hands ivith a tankard of ale. 
Laru, &c. 

You maids ivho feel shame, pray me do not blame, 
Though your private ongoings in public I tell j 

Young Bridget and Nell to kiss ivill not fail 

When once they shake hands ivith a tankard of ale. 
Laru, tsfc. 

There's some jolly ivives, love drink as their lives, 
Dear neighbours but mind the sad thread of my tale ; 

Their husbands they'll scorn, as sure's they ivere born, 
If once they shake hands ivith a tankard of ale. 
Laru, &c. 

From ivr angling or jangling, and ev'ry such strife, 
Or anything else that may happen to fall ; 

From ivords come to bloivs, and sharp bloody nose, 
But friends again over a tankard of ale. 
Laru, &c. 

X3 



310 Appendix. 

Notice the characteristic mention of William Elderton, 
the Ballad- writer (who died before 1592), in the thirty- 
third verse (our p. 119) : — 

For ballads Elderton never had peer j 

Hoiv ivent his ivit in them, ivith hoiv merry a gale, 
And ivith all the sails up, had he been at the cup, 

And washed his beard ivith a pot of good ale. 

William Elderton's "New Yorkshire Song, intituled 
Yorke, Yorke, for my Monie," (entered at Stationers' 
Hall, 16 November, 1582, and afterwards "Imprinted at 
London by Richard Iones; dwelling neere Holbourne 
Bridge : 1584)," has the place of honour in the Rox- 
burghe Collection, being the first ballad in the first 
volume. It consequently takes the lead in the valuable 
"Roxburghe Bds." of the Ballad Society, 1869, so ably 
edited by William Chappell, Esq., F.S.A. It also formed 
the commencement of Ritson's Yorkshire Garland: York, 
1788. It is believed that Elderton wrote the "excellent 
Ballad intituled The Constancy of Susanna" (Roxb. 
Coll., i, 60; Bagford, ii. 6; Pepys, i. 33, 496). A list of 
others was first given by Ritson ; since, by W. C. Haz- 
litt, in his Handbook, p. 177. Elderton's " Lenton Stuff 
ys come to the town" was reprinted by J. O. Halliwell, 
for the Shakespeare Society, in 1846 (p. 105). He gives 
Drayton's allusion to Elderton in Notes to Mr. Hy. 
Huth's "79 Black-Letter Ballads," 1870, 274 (the "Praise 
of my Ladie Marquess," by W. E., being on pp. 14-16). 
Elderton had been an actor in 1552 ; his earliest dated 
ballad is of 1559, and he had ceased to live by 1592. 
Camden gives an epitaph, which corroborates our text, in 
regard to the "thirst complaint" of the balladist : — 

Hie situs est sitiens, atque ebrius Eldertonus — 
Quid dico — Hie situs est ? hie fotius sitis est. 

Thus freely rendered by Oldys : — ■ 

Dead drunk here Elderton doth lie ; 
Dead as he is, he still is dry ; 
So of him it may ivell be said, 
Here he, but not his thirst, is laid. 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 311 

A MS., time of James I., possessed by J. P, Collier, 
mentions, in further confirmation : 

Will Elderton's red nose is famous everywhere, 

And many a ballet shoivs it cost him very dear ; 

In ale, and toast, and spice, he spent good store of coin, 

You need not ask him twice to take a cup ofivine. 

But though his nose ivas red, his hand ivas very ivhite, 

In tuork it never sped, nor took in it delight j 

No marvel therefore ''tis, that ivhite should be his hand, 

That ballets ivrit a score, as you ivell understand. 

{See Wm. Chap-pell' s Popular Music of the Olden Time, 
pp. 107, 815; and J. P. Collier's Extracts from Reg. Stat. 
Comp., passim, Indices, art. Elderton ; and his Bk. of 
Roxb. Bds., p. 139.) 

Page 125 (orig. 14). With an old Song, made by, &c. 

The fashion of disparaging the present, by praising the 
customs and people of days that have passed away, is 
almost as old as the Deluge, if not older. Homer speaks 
of the degeneracy in his time, and aged Israel had long 
earlier lamented the few and evil days to which his own 
life extended, in comparison with those patriarchs who 
had gone before him. Even as we know not the full value 
of the Mistress or the friend whose affection had been 
given unto us, until separated from them, for ever, by 
estrangement or the grave, so does it seem to be with 
many customs and things. Robert Browning touchingly 
declares : — 

And she is gone ; siveet human love is gone! 

3 Tis only ivhen they spring to heaven that angels 

Reveal themselves to you z they sit all day 

Beside you, and lie doivn at night by you 

Who care not for their presence, muse or sleep, 

And all at once they leave you, and you knovu them! 

Modified in succeeding reigns, the ballad of " The Queen 
[Elizabeth] 's Old Courtier, and A New Courtier of the 
King [James]" has already known two hundred and 

X4 



312 Appendix. 

fifty years' popularity. The earliest printed copy was 
probably issued by T. Symcocke, by or after 1626. We 
find it in several books about the time of the Restoration, 
when parodies became frequent. It is in Le Prince 
d' Amour, 1660, p. 161 ; Wit and Drollery, 1682 (not in 
1656, 1661 edits.), p. 278, "With an old Song," &c j Wit 
and Mirth, 1684, p. 43; Dry den's Misc. Poems (ed. 17 16, 
iv. 108) ; with the Music, in Pills, iii. 271 ; in Philomel, 
130, 1744; Percy's Reliques, ii. Bk. 3, No. 8, 1767; Rit- 
son's English Sgs., ii. 140, and Chappell's Pop. Music, p. 
300, to which refer for a good introduction, with extract 
from Pepys Diary of 16th June, 1668. Accompanying a 
Parody by T. Howard, Gent, (beginning similarly, "An 
Old Song made of an old aged pate"), it meets us in the 
Roxburghe Coll., iii. 72, printed for F. Coles (1646-74). 

Among other parodies may be mentioned one entitled 
" An Old Souldier of the Queen's " (in Merry Drollery, 
Compleat, 31, and in Wit and Drollery, 248, 1661); 
another, " The New Souldier " (Wit and Drollery, 282, 
1682), beginning : — 

With a neiv Beard but lately trimmed, 
With a new love-lock neatly kemm'd, 
With a neiv favour snatch' d or nimm'd, 
With a neiv doublet, French-like trimm'd ; 
And a neiv gate, as if he sivimm'd ; 

Like a new Souldier of the King's, 
And the King's new Souldier. 

With a neiv feather in his Cap ; 

With neiv ivhite bootes, ivithout a strap ; &c. 

In the same edition of Wit and Drollery, p. 165, is yet 
another parody, headed "Old Souldiers," which runs 
thus (see Westminster-Drollery, ii. 24, 1672,) : — 

Of Old Souldiers the song you ivould hear, 
And ive old fiddlers have forgot ivho they ivere. 

John Cleveland had a parody on the Queen's Courtier, 
about 1648, entitled The Puritan, beginning "With face 
and fashion to be known, For one of sure election." 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 313 

Another, called The Tub-Preacher, is doubtfully attributed 
to Samuel Butler, and begins similarly, " With face and 
fashion to be known : With eyes all white, and many a 
groan" (in his Posthumous Works, p. 44, 3rd edit., 1730). 
The political parody, entitled "Saint George and the 
Dragon, anglice Mercurius Poeticus," to the same tune of 
"The Old Courtier," is in the Kings Pamphlets, XVI., 
and has been reprinted by T. Wright for the Percy Soc, 
iii. 205. It bears Thomason's date, 28 Feb., i659-[6o], 
and is on the overthrow of the Rump, by General Monk. 
It begins thus : — 

Neivs ! neivs I here's the occurrences and a new 

Mercurius, 
A dialogue between Haselrigg the baffled and 
Arthur the furious j 
With Ireton's readings upon legitimate and spurious. 

Proving that a Saint may be the Son of a Wh s 

for the satisfaction of the curious. 

From a Rump insatiate as the Sea, 
Libera nos, Domine, &c. 

Old songs have rarely, if ever, been modernized so suc- 
cessfully as " The Queen's Old Courtier," of which "The 
Fine Old English Gentleman " is no unworthy represen- 
tative. Popular though it was, thirty or forty years 
ago, it is not easily met with now ; thus we may be ex- 
cused for adding it here : — 

THE FINE OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN. 

T'LL sing you a good old song, made by a good old pate, 
-L Of a fine old English gentleman, who had an old 

estate, 
And who kept up his old mansion, at a bountiful old 
rate ; 
With a good old porter to relieve the old poor at his gate. 
Like a fine old English gentleman, all of the olden time. 

His hall so old was hung around with pikes, and guns, 

and bows, 
And swords, and good old bucklers, that had stood 

against old foes j 



314 Appendix. 

9 Tvuas there "his worship " held his state in doublet and 

trunk hose, 
And quaffed his cup of good old Sack, to warm his good 

old nose : 

Like a fine old English gentleman, &c. 

When Winter's cold brought frost and snoiv, he opened 

house to all j 
And though threescore and ten his years, he Jeatly led 

the ball j 
Nor was the houseless wanderer e' er driven from his hall, 
For, while he feasted all the great, he ne'er forgot the 

small : 

Like ajine old English gentleman, &c. 

But time, though siveet, is strong in flight, and years 

roll swiftly by ; 
And autum's falling leaves proclaimed, the old man — > 

he must die i 
He laid him down right tranquilly, gave up life's latest 

sigh j 
While a heavy stillness reign'd around, and tears 

dimmed every eye. 

For this good old English gentleman, ®c. 

Now surely this is better far than all the nevu parade 
Of theatres and fancy balls, "At Home," and masquer- 
ade ; 
And much more economical, ivhen all the bills are paid : 
Then leave your nevu vagaries off, and take up the old 
trade 

Of a fine old English gentleman, isfc. 

A series of eight Essays, each illustrated with a design 
by R. W. Buss, was devoted to "The Old and Young 
Courtier" in the Penny Magazine of the Society for 
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, in 1842. 

Charles Matthews used to sing (was it in "Patter 
versus Clatter"?) an amusing version of "The Fine 
Young English Gentleman," of whom it was reported that, 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 315 

He kept up his "vagaries at a most astounding rate, 
And likeivise his old Landlady, — by staying out so late, 
Like a fine young English gentleman, one of the 
present time, &c. 

T. R. Planche wrote a parody to the same tune, in his 
"Golden Fleece/' on the "Fine Young Grecian Gentle- 
man," Iason, as described by his deserted wife Medea : it 
begins, "I'll tell you a sad tale of the life I've been led of 
late." In Dinny Blake's " Sprig of Shillelah," p. 3, is 
found "The Rale Ould Irish Gintleman," (5 verses) be- 
ginning, "I'll sing you a dacent song, that was made by 
a Paddy's pate," and ending thus : — 

Each Irish boy then took a pride to prove himself a man, 
To serve a friend, and beat a foe it altuays vuas the plan 
Of a rale ould Irish Gintleman, the boy of the 
olden time. 

(Or, as Wm. Hy. Murray, of Edinburgh, used to say, in 
his unequalled " Old Country Squire," " A smile for a 
friend, a frown for a foe, and a full front for every one!") 
At the beginning of the Crimean War appeared another 
parody, ridiculing the Emperor Nicholas, as " The Fine 
Old Russian Gentleman " (it is in Berger's Red, White, 
and Blue, 467); and clever Robert B. Brough, in one of 
his more bitter moods against " The Governing Classes," 
misrepresented the " Fine Old English Gentleman " 
(Ibid, p. 733), as splenetically as Charles Dickens did in 
Barnaby Rudge, chapter 47. 

Page 20 (original). Pan leave piping, &c. 

Given already, in our Appendix to the Westminster Drol- 
lery, p. liv., with note of tune and locality. See Addi- 
tional Note in Part 3 of present Appendix. 

Page 129 (orig. 26). Why should ive boast tf/* Arthur, &c. 

There are so many differences in the version printed in 
the Antidote agt. Melancholy from that already given in 
Merry Drollery, Compleat, p. 309, (cp. Note, p. 399), that 
we give the former uncurtailed. 



316 Appendix. 



Along with the music in Pills to p. Mel., iii. 116, 1719, 
are the extra verses (also in Wit and Mirth, 1684, p. 29?) 
agreeing with the Antidote j as does the version in Old 
Bds., i. 24, 1723. 

Another old ballad, in the last-named collection, p. 
153, is upon "King Edward and Jane Shore; in Imita- 
tion, and to the Tune of, St. George and the Dragon" 
It begins (in better version) : — 

Why should ive boast q/*Lais and her knights, 
Knowing such Champions entrapt by Whorish Lights ? 
Or ivhy should ive speak of Thais curled Locks, 
Or Rhodope, &c. 

Roxb. Coll., iii. 258, printed in 1671. Also in Pills, with 
music, iv. 272. The authorship of it is ascribed to 
Samuel Butler, in the volume assuming to be his 
"Posthumous Works" (p. iii., 3rd edition, 1730); but 
this ascription is of no weight in general. 

In Edm. Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixot, 
1654, p. 231, we read: — "'Twas very proper for these 
Saints to alight at the sign of St. George, who slew the 
Dragon which was to prey upon the Virgin : The truth 
of which story hath been abus'd by his own country-men, 
who almost deny all the particulars of it, as I have read 
in a scurrilous Epigram, very much impairing the credit 
and Legend of St. George ; As followeth, 

THey say there is no Dragon, 
Nor no Saint George 'tis said. 
Saint George and Dragon lost, 
Pray Heaven there be a Maid ! 

But it was smartly return'd to, in this manner, 

SAint George indeed is dead, 
And the fell Dragon slaine j 
The Maid I'vv'd so and dyed, — 
She'll ne'r do so againe." 

Somewhat different is the earlier version, in Wit's Recre- 
ations, 1640-45. (Reprint, p. 194, which see, "To save 
a maid," &c.) The Answer to it is probably Gayton's 
own. 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 317 

Page 133 (orig. 29). Come hither, thou merriest, isfc. 

Issued as a popular broadsheet, printed at London 
for Thomas Lambert, probably during the lifetime of 
Charles I., we find this lively ditty of "Blew Cap for 
Me !" in the Roxburghe Coll., i. 20, and in the Bd. Soc. 
Reprint, vol. i. pp. 74-9. Mr. Chappell mentions that the 
tune thus named " is included in the various editions of 
The Dancing Master from 1650 to 1690; and says, the 
reference to ' when our good king was in Falkland town,' 
[in the Antidote it reads "our good knight," line 13] may 
supply an approximate date to the composition." We 
believe that it must certainly have been before the Scots 
sold their king for the base bribe of money from the Par- 
liamentarians, in 1648, when "Blew caps" became hate- 
ful to all true Cavaliers. The visit to Falkland was in 
1633, so the date is narrowed in compass. From the 
Black-letter ballad we gain a few corrections : droivne, 
for dare, in 4th line; long locked, 26th line; for further 
exercises, 28th ; Mist r is (so we should read Maitresse, not 
a metrel), 29th ; Pe gar me do love you (not "Dear"), 
30th; she replide. The First Part ends with the Irish- 
man. The Second Part begins with two verses not in 
the Antidote : — 

A Dainty spruce Spanyard, tvith haire black as jett, 
long cloak ivith round cape, a long Rapier and Pon- 
yardj 
Hee told her if that she could Scotland forget, 

hee'd sheiv her the Vines as they groiv in the Vineyard. 
" If thou ivilt abandon 
this Country so cold, 
I'll shoiv thee f aire Spaine, 
and much Indian gold." 
But stil she replide, " Sir, 

I pray let me be j 

Gif ever I have a man, 

Blew-cap for me." 

A haughty high German of Hamborough ioivne, 
a proper tall gallant, ivith mighty mustachoes ; 



318 Appendix. 

He iveepes if the Lasse upon him doe but froivne, 
yet he's a great Fencer that comes to ore-match vs* 
But yet all his fine fencing 

Could not get the Lasse / 
She deny'd him so oft, 

that he ivearyed ivas ; 
For still she replide, " Sir, 

I pray let me be ; 
Gif ever I have a man, 

Blew- cap for me. 

In the Netherland Mariner's Speech we find for the fifth 
line of verse, "Isk will make thee," said he, "sole Lady/* 
&c. Another verse follows it, before the conclusion : — 

These sundry Sutors, of seuerall Lands, [4] 

did daily so licit e this Lasse for her fauour j 
And euery one of them alike understands 

that to ivin the prize they in vaine did endeauour .* 
For she had resolued 

(as I before said) 
To haue bonny Bleiv-cap, 

or else bee a maid. 
Vnto all her suppliants 

still replyde she, 
" Gif ever I have a man, 
Blew-cap for me." 

At last came a Scottish-man (tvith a blevu-cap), 

and he ivas the party for tvhom she had tarry y d ; 
To get this blithe bonny Lasse 'twas his gude hap, — 
they gang'd to the Kirk, & ivere presently marry' d. 
I ken not iveele ivhether 

it ivere Lord or Lear d 2 [Laird] 
They caude him some sike 
a like name as I heard ; 
To chuse him from au 

She did gladly agree, — 
And still she cride, " Blew-cap, 
th'art welcome to mee." 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 319 

The song is also reprinted for the Percy Society, (Fair- 
holt's Costume), xxvii. 130, as well as in Evans' 0. Bds., 
iii. 245. Compare John Cleavland's "Square Cap," — 
" Come hither, Apollo's bouncing girl." 

Page 135 (orig. 30). The Wit hath long beholden been. 

In Harleian MS. No. 6931, where it is signed as by Dr, 
W. Strode. 

The tune of this is "The Shaking of the Sheets," ac- 
cording to a broadside printed for John Trundle (1605-24, 
before 1628, as by that date we believe his widow's name 
would have been substituted). We find it reprinted by J. 
P. Collier in his Book of Roxburghe Ballads, p. 172, 1847, 
as "The Song of the Caps." In an introductory note, 
we gather that "This spirited and humorous song seems 
to have been founded, in some of its points, upon the 
' Pleasant Dialogue or Disputation between the Cap and 
the Head,' which prose satire went through two editions, 
in 1564 and 1565 : (see the Bridgewater Catalogue, p. 
46.) It is, however, more modern, and certainly cannot 
be placed earlier than the end of the reign of Elirabeth. 
It may be suspected that it underwent some changes, to 
adapt it to the times, when it was afterwards reprinted ^ 
and we finally meet with it, but in a rather corrupted 
state, in a work published in 1656, called 'Sportive Wit : 
the Muses Merriment, a new Spring of Lusty Drollery,' 
&c." [p. 23.] It appears, with the music, in Pills, iv. 157 j 
in Percy Society's "Costume," 1849, 115, with woodcuts 
of several of the caps mentioned. 

In Sportive Wit, 1656, p. 23, is a second verse (coming 
before " The Monmouth Cap," &c.) : — 

2. — The Cap doth stand, each man can shcnv^ 
Above a Croivn, but Kings beloiv : 
The Cap is nearer heav'n than ive ; 
A greater sign of Majestie : 
When off the Cap ive chance to take, 
Both head and feet obeysance make j, 
For any Cap, &c. 



320 Appendix. 

In our 3rd verse, it reads : — ever brought, The quilted, 
Furr'd ; crewel; 4th verse, line 6, of (some say) a horn. 
5th verse, crooked cause aright ; Which, being round and 
endless, knows || To make as endless any cause [A better 
version]. 6th, findes a mouth; 7th, The Motley Man a 
Cap ; [for lines 3, 4, compare Shakespeare, as to it taking 
a wise man to play the fool,] like the Gyanfs Crown. 8th, 
Sick-mans j When hats in Church drop off apace, This 
Cap ne'er leaves the head uncas'd, Though he be ill ; 
[two next verses are expanded into three, in Sp. Wit!\ 
nth, none but Graduats [N.B.] ; none covered are; But 
those that to ; go bare. This Cap, of all the Caps that be, 
Is now ; high degree. 

Page 139 (orig. 37). Once la curious eye did fix. 

This is in Thomas Weaver's Songs and Poems of Love 
and Drollery, p. 16, 1654. Elsewhere attributed to John 
Cleveland (who died in 1658), and printed among his 
Poems "J. Cleavland Revived" p. 106, 3rd edit. 1662), 
as " The Schismatick," with a trashy fifth verse (not 
found elsewhere) : — 

/ heard of one did touch, 

He did tell as much, 

Of one that would not crouch 

At Communion ; 
Who thrusting up his hand 
Never made a stand 

Till he came where her f had union ; 

She without all terrour, 
Thought it no errour, 
But did laugh till the tears down did trickle, 
Ha, ha, ha, Rotundus, Rotundus, 'tis you that my spleen 
doth tickle. 

It is likewise in the Rump collection, i. 223, 1662; Loyal 
Sgs.,\. 131, 1731. 

Page 139 (orig. 47), I's not come hereto tauk of Prut. 
By Ben Jonson. This is the song of the Welshmen, 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 321 

Evan, Howell, and Rheese, alternately, in Praise of Wales, 
sung in an Anti-Masque " For the Honour of Wales," 
performed before King James I. on Shrove Tuesday, 
1618-19. The final verse is omitted from the Antidote 
against Melancholy. It is this (sung by Rheese) : — 

Au, but ivhat say yoiv should it shance too, 

That ive should leap it in a dance too, 

And make it you as great a pleasure, 

If but your eyes be noiv at leisure j 

As in your ears s'all leave a laughter, 

To last upon you six days after? 

Ha ! ivell-a-go to, let us try to do, 

As your old Britton, things to be ivrit on. 

Chorus. — Come, put on other looks noiv, 

And lay aivay your hooks noiv ; 
And though yet yoiv ha' no pump, sirs, 
Let 'em hear that yoiv can jump, sirs, 
Still, still, ive'll toudge your ears, 
With the praise of her thirteen s'eeres. 

(See Col. F, Cunningham's "Mermaid" Ben Jonson, iii. 
130-2, for Gifford's Notes.) With a quaint old woodcut 
of a strutting Welshman, in cap and feather, the song re- 
appears in "Recreations for Ingenious Head-pieces, 1645 
(Wits Recreations, Reprint, p. 387). 

Page 143. Old Poets Hipocrin admire. 

This is attributed to Thomas Randall, or Randolph 
(died 1634-5), in Wit and Mirth, 1684. p. 101 : But to N. 
N., along with music by Hy. Lawes, in his Ay res, Book 
ii. p. 29, 1655. It is also in Parnassus Biceps, 1656, p. 
158, "All Poets," &c, and in Sportive Wit, p. 60. 

Page 144. Hang the Presbyter's Gill. 

With music in Pills, vi. 182; title, "The Presbyter's 
Gill :" where we find three other verses, as 4th, 5th, and 
7th :— 

Y 



322 



Appendix. 



The stout-brested Lombard, His brains ne'er incumbred, 

With drinking of Gallons three j 
Trycongius was named, And by Caesar famed, 

Who dubb'd him Knight Cap-a-pee. 



If then Honour be in't, Why a Pox should ive stint 

Ourselves of the fulness it bears ? 
H* has less Wit than an Ape, In the blood of a Grape, 

Will not plunge himself o'er Head and Ears. 

7- 
See the bold Foe appears, May he fall that him Fears, 

Keep you but close order, and then 
We ivill give him the Rout, Be he never so stout\J\ 

And prepare for his Rallying agen. 

8 (Final). 
Let's drain the whole Cellar, &c. 

The accumulative progression, humourously exaggerated, 
is to be seen employed in other Drinking Songs; notably 
in " Here's a Health to the Barley-Mow, my brave 
boys !" (still heard at rural festivals in East Yorkshire, 
and printed in J. H. Dixon's Bds. &" Sgs. of the Peasan- 
try, Bell's annotated edit., p. 159) and " Bacchus Over- 
come," beginning " My Friend and I, we drank," &c. 
(in Coll. Old Bds., m. 145, 1725.) 



Page 145. 'Tis Wine that inspires. 

With music by Henry Lawes, in his Select Ayres, i. 32, 
1653, entitled "The Excellency of Wine :" the author was 
"Lord Broughall " [query, Broghill?]. 



(Page, in original, 55.) Let the bells ring. 

See Introduction to our Westminster-Drollery Reprint, 
pp. xxxvii-viii. Although not printed in the first edition 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 323 

of his " Spanish Curate," it is so entirely in the spirit of 
John Fletcher that we need not hesitate to assign it to 
him : and he died in 1625. 

Page 146. Bring out the \_c\old Chyne. 

With music, by Dr. John Wilson, in John Playford's 
Select Ay res, 1659, p. 86, entitled Glee to the Cook. A 
poem attributed to Thomas Flatman, 1655, begins, " A 
Chine of Beef, God save us all !" 

Page 147. In Love ? aivay 1 you do me ivrong. 

Given, with music by Henry Lawes, in his Select Ayres, 
Book iii. p. 5, 1669. The author of the words was Dr. 
Henry Hughes. We do not find the burden, " Come, 
rill's a Cup/' along with the music. 

(Page 65, orig.) Re that a Tinker, a Tinker &c. 
See Choyce Drollery, 52, and note on p. 289. 

Page 149, line 8th, Noiv that the Spring, &c. 

This was written by Willm. Browne, author of "Britan- 
nia's Pastorals," and therefore dates before 1645. See 
Additional Note, late in Part IV., on p. 296 of M. D. C. 

Page 149. You Merry Poets, old boys. 

Given, with music by John Hilton, in his Catch that Catch 
Can, 1652, p. 7. Also in Walsh's Catch-Club, ii. 13, No. 
24. 

Page 150. Come, come aivay, to the Tavern, I say. 

By Sir John Suckling, in his unfinished tragedy "The 
Sad One," Act iv. sc. 4, where it is sung by Signior 
Multecarni the Poet, and two of the actors ; but without 
the final couplet, which recalls to memory Francis's re- 
joinder in Henry IV., pt. i. Suckling was accustomed to 

Y 2 



324 Appendix. 

introduce Shakesperian phrases into his plays, and we 
believe these two lines are genuine. We find the Catch, 
with music by John Hilton in that composer's Catch that 
Catch Can, 1652, p. 15. (Also in Playford's Musical 
Companion, 1673, p. 24.) 

Captain William Hicks has a dialogue of Two Parlia- 
mentary Troopers, beginning with the same first line, in 
Oxford Drollery, i. 21, 1671. Written before 1659, thus : 

Come, come away, to the Tavern, I say, 

Whilst ive have time and leisure for to think ; 
I find our State lyes tottering of late, 

And that e're long ive sha'n't have time to drink. 
Then here's a health to thee, to thee and me, 
To me and thee, to thee and me, &c. 

Page 151. There vuas an Old Man at Walton Cross. 

This should read " Waltham Cross." By Richard 
Brome, in his comedy of "The Jovial Crew," Act ii., 
1641, wherein it is sung by Hearty, as "t'other old song 
for that" [the uselessness of sighing for a lass] ; to the 
tune of "Taunton Dean," (see Dodsley's Old Plays, 1st 
edit., 1744, vi. 333). With music by John Hilton, it is 
given in J. H.'s Catch that Catch Can, 1652, p. 31. It is 
also in Walsh's Catch Club (about 1705) ii. 17, No. 43. 

Page 151. Come, let us cast dice, ivho shall drink. 

In J. Hilton's Catch that Catch Can, 1652, p. 55, with 
music by William Lawes; and in John Playford's Mu- 
sical Companion, 1673, p. 24. 

Page 151. Never let a man take heavily, &c. 

With music by William Lawes, in Hilton's Catch that 
Catch Can, 1652, p. 38. 

Page 152. Lefs cast aivay care, and merrily sing. 
With music by William Lawes, in Hilton's Catch that 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 325 

Catch Can, 1652, p. 37. Wm. Chappell gives the words 
of four lines, omitting fifth and sixth, to accompany the 
music of Ben Jonson's " Cock Lorrell," in Pop. Mus. of 
0. T., 161 (where date of the Antidote is accidentally 
misprinted 1651, for 1661). 

Page 152. Hang sorrow, and cast aivay care. 

With music by William Lawes, in Hilton's Catch that 
Catch Can, 1652, p. 39. The words alone in Windsor 
Drollery, 140, 1672. Richard Climsall, or Climsell, has a 
long ballad, entitled "Joy and Sorrow Mixt Together," 
which begins, 

T TAng Sorrozv ! lefs cast aivay care, 

for noiv I do mean to be merry ; 
Wee' I drink some good Ale and strong Beere, 

With Sugar, and Clarret, and Sherry. 
Noiv He have a ivife of mine oivn : 

I shall have no need for to borroiv ; 
I ivould have it for to be knoivn 

that I shall be married to morroiv. 
Here's a health to my Bride that shall be ! 

come, pledge it, you coon merry blades ; 
The day I much long for to see, 

we will be as merry as the Maides. 

Poor fellow ! he soon changes his tune, after marriage, 
although singing to the music of " Such a Rogue would 
be hang' d," — better known as "Old Sir Simon the King." 
Printed by John Wright the younger (1641-83), it sur- 
vives in the Roxburghe Collection, i. 172, and is reprinted 
for the Bd. Soc, i. 515. As may be seen, it is totally 
different from the Catch in Hilton's volume and the Anti- 
dote ; which is also in Oxford Drollery, Pt. 3, p. 136, 
there entitled "A Cup of Sack : — " Hang Sorrow, cast/' 
&c. 

It there has two more verses : — 

2. 

Come Ladd, here's a health to thy Love, [p. 136.] 

Do thou drink another to mine, 



326 Appendix. 

Vie never be strange, for if thou tuilt change 

Pie barter my Lady for thine : 
She is as free, and ivilling to be 

To any thing I command, 
I z>oiv like a friend, I never intend 

To put a bad thing in thy hand : 
Then be as frollick and free [p. 137." 

With her as thou ivoul'st ivith thine own, 
But let her not lack good Claret and Sack, 

To make her come off and come on. 



Come drink, tve cannot ivant Chink, 

Observe hozu my pockets do gingle, 
And he that takes his Liquor all off 

I here do adopt him mine ningle : 
Then range a health to our King, 

I mean the King of October, 
For Bacchus is he that ivill not agree 

A man should go to bed sober : 
' Tis ivine, both neat and fine, 

That is the faces adorning, 
No Doctor can cure, ivith his Physick more sure, 

Than a Cup of small Beer in the morning. 

This shows how a great man's gifts are undervalued. 
Christopher Sly was truly wise ( yet accounted a Sot and 
even a Rogue, though " the Slys are no rogues : look in 
the chronicles ! We came in with Richard Conqueror!") 
when, with all the wealth and luxury of the Duke at com- 
mand, he demanded nothing so much as " a pot o' the 
smallest ale." He had good need of it. 

Page 152. My Lady and her Maid, upon a merry pin. 

This meets us earlier, in Hilton's Catch that Catch Can, 
1651, p. 64, with music by William Ellis. The missing 
first verse reappears (if, indeed, not a later addition) in 
Oxford Drollery, 1674, Part Hi. p. 163, as "made at 
Oxford many years since : — 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 327 

My Lady and her Maid 

Were late at Course-a-Park : 
The ivind bleiv out the candle, and 

She ivent to bed in the dark, 

My Lady, &c. [as in Antidote ag. Mel.'] 

It was popular before December, 1659 J allusions to it are 
in the Rump, 1662, i. 369; ii. 62, 97. 

Page 153. An old house end. 
Also in Windsor Drollery, 1672, p. 30. 

Same p. 153. Wilt thou lend me thy Mare. 

With music by Edmund Nelham, in John Hilton's Catch 
that Catch can, 1652, p. 78. The Answer, here beginning 
" Your Mare is lame," &c, we have not met elsewhere. 
The Catch itself has always been a favourite. In a world 
wherein, amid much neighbourly kindness, there is more 
than a little of imposition, the sly cynicism of the verse 
could not fail to please. Folks do not object to doing a 
good turn, but dislike being deemed silly enough to have 
been taken at a disadvantage. So we laugh at the Catch, 
say something wise, and straightway let ourselves do 
good-natured things again with a clear conscience. 

Page 154. Good Symon, hoiv comes it, &c. 

With music by William Howes, in Hilton's Catch that 
Catch can, 1652, p. 84. Also in Walsh's Catch-Club, ii. 
77. We are told that the Symon here addressed, regard- 
ing his Bardolphian nose, was worthy Symon Wadloe, — 
" Old Sym, the King of Skinkers," or Drawers. Possibly 
some jocular allusion to the same reveller animates the 
choice ditty (for which see the Percy Folio MS., iv. 124, 
and Pills, iii. 143), 

Old Sir Simon the King ! 

With his ale-dropt hose, 

And his malmesy nose, 
Sing hey ding, ding a ding ding. 

Y4 



328 Appendix. 



We scarcely believe the ascription to be correct, and that 
" Old Symon the King " originally referred to Simon 
Wadloe, who kept the " Devil and St. Dunstan " Tavern, 
whereat Ben Jonson and his comrades held their meet- 
ings as The Apollo Club ; for which the Leges Convivi- 
ales were written. Seeing that Wadloe died in 1626, or 
'27, and there being a clear trace of " Old Simon the 
King" in 1575, in Laneham's Kenilvuorth Letter (Re- 
printed for Ballad Society, 1871, p. cxxxi.), the song ap- 
pears of too early a date to suit the theory. Tant pis 
pour les faits. But consult Chappell's Pop. Mus., 263-5, 
776-7. 

Same p. 154. Wilt thou befatt? &"c. 

In 1865 (see his Bibliog. Account, i. 25), J. P. Collier 
drew attention to the mention of Falstaff's name in this 
Catch ; also to the other Shakesperiana, viz., the complete 
song of "Jog on, jog on the footpath way," (p. 156), and 
the burden of " Three merry boys," to " The Wise-men 
were but Seven " (M. D. C, p. 232), which is connected 
with Sir Toby Belch's joviality in Twelfth Night, A6lii. 3. 

Page 155. Of all the birds that ever I see. 

With the music, in Chappell's Pop. Mus. O. T., p. 75. 
This favourite of our own day dates back so early, at 
least, as 1609, when it appeared in (Thomas Ravens- 
croft's ?) Deuteromelia ; or, the Second Part of Musick's 
Melodie, tsfc, p. 7. We therein find (what has dropped 
out, to the damage of our Antidote version), as the final 
couplet : — 

Sinamont and ginger, nutmegs and cloves, 
And that gave me my jolly red nose. 

Of course, it was the spice deserved blame, not the liquor 
(as Sam Weller observed, on a similar occasion, " Some- 
how it always is the salmon"). Those who remember 
(at the Johnson in Fleet Street, or among the Harmonist 
Society of Edinburgh) the suggestive lingering over the 
first syllable of the word "gin-ger," when "this song is 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 329 

well sung/' cannot willingly relinquish the half-line. It 
is a genuine relic, for it also occurs in Beaumont and 
Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle," about 1613, 
Act i. sc. 3; where chirping Old Merrythought, "who 
sings with never a penny in his purse," gives it thus, 
while " singing and hoiting " [i.e., skipping] : — 

Nose, nose, jolly red nose, 
And ivho gave thee this jolly red nose ? 
Cinnamon and ginger, nutmegs and cloves, 
And they gave me this jolly red nose. 

And we know, by A Booke of Merrie Riddles, 1630, and 
1 63 1, that it was much sung : 

— then Ale-Knights should 
To sing this song not be so bold, 
Nutmegs, Ginger, Cinamon and Cloves, 
They gave us this jolly red nose. 

Same p. 155. This Ale, my bonny lads, &fc. 
Like Nos. 4, 21, 24, 31, &c, not yet found elsewhere. 

Page 156. What ! are ive met ? Come. tsfc. 

With music by Thomas Holmes, in Hilton's Catch that 
Catch can, 1652, p. 46. 

Same p. 156. Jog on, jog on the foot path-ivay . 

The four earliest lines of this ditty are sung by Autolycus 
the Pedlar, and "picker up of unconsidered trifles," in 
Shakespeare's Winter's Tale (about 1610), Act iv. sc. 
2. Whether the latter portion of the song was also by 
him (nay, more, whether he actually wrote, or merely 
quoted even the four opening lines), cannot be determined. 
We prefer to believe that from his hand alone came the 
fragment, at least — this lively snatch of melody, with 
good philosophy, such as the Ascetics reject, to their own 
damage. No wrong is done in accepting the remainder 
of the song as genuine. The final verse is orthodox, 



330 Appendix. 

according to the Autolycusian rule of faith. It is in 
Windsor Drollery, p. 30 ; and our Introduction to West- 
minster-Drollery, p. xxxv. 

Page 157. The parcht earth drinks, &c. 

Compare, with this lame paraphrase of Anacreon's racy 
Ode, the more poetic version by Abraham Cowley, printed 
in Merry Drollery, Compleat, p. 22 (not in 1661 ed. Merry 
D.) All of Cowley's Anacreontiques are graceful and 
melodious. He and Thomas Stanley fully entered into 
the spirit of them, arcades ambo. 

Same, p. 157. A Man of Wales, &c. 

We meet this, six years earlier, in Wits Interpreter, 1655 
edit., p. 285 ; 167 1, p. 290. Our text is the superior. 

Page 158. Drink, drink, all you that think. 
Also found in Wit and Mirth, 1684, p. 113. 

Page 159. Welcome, nvelcome, again to thy ivits. 

By James Shirley, (1590-1666) in his comedy, " The 
Example," 1637, Act v. sc. 3, where it is the Song of Sir 
Solitary Plot and Lady Plot. Repeated in the Academy 
of Complements, 1670, p. 209. Until after that date, for 
nearly a century, almost all the best songs had been 
written for stage plays. It forms an appropriate finale, 
from the last Dramatist of the old school, to the Restora- 
tion merriment, the Antidote against Melancholy , of 1661. 
In one of the later " Sessions of the Poets " ('vide postea 
Part 4, § 2) — probably, of 1664-5, — Shirley is referred to, 
ungenerously. He was then aged nearly seventy : — 

Old Shirley stood up, and made an Excuse, 
Because many Men before him had got j 

He 'voiv'd he had switch' d and spur-gall'd his Muse, 
But still the dull Jade kept to her old trot. 



Antidote against Melancholy. 1661. 331 

He is also mentioned, with more reverence implied, by 
George Daniel of Beswick ; and we may well conclude 
this second part of our Appendix with the final verses 
from the Beswick MS. (1636-53); insomuch as many 
Poets are therein mentioned, to whom we return in Sec- 
tion Fourth : — 

The noble Overburies Quill has left [verse 20] 

A better Wife then he could ever find : 
I tvill not search too deep, lest I should lift 
Dust from the dead : Strange power, of womankind, 
To raise and ruine j for all he tvill claime, 
As from that sex ; his Birth, his Death, his Fame. 

But I spin out too long : let me draiv up 
My thred, to honour names, of my owne time 
Without their Eulogies, for it may stop 
With Circumstantiall Termes, a ivearie Rhime : 
Suffice it if I name 'em ; that for me 
Shall stand, not to refuse their Eulogie. 

The noble Falkland, Digbie, Carew, Maine, 
Beaumond, Sands, Randolph, Allen, Rutter, May,* 
The devine Herbert, and the Fletchers twaine, 
Habinton, Shirley, Stapilton ; i" stay [N.B.] 

Too much on names ; yet may I not forget 
Davenant, and Suckling, eminent in ivitt. 

Waller, not wants, the glory of his 'verse ; 
And meets, a noble praise in every line j 
What should I adde in honour ? to reherse, 
Admired Cleveland 1 by a verse of mine? 

Or give y e glorious Muse tf/'Denham praise ? 

Soe withering Brambles stand, to liveing Bayes. 

These may suffice; not only to advance 
Our English honour, but for ever cr oivne 



* [In margin, a later-inserted line reads : 

" Godolphin, Cartwright, Beaumont, Montague."] 



332 Appendix. 

Poesie, 'bove the reach of Ignorance ; 

Our dull fooles unmov'd, admire their oivne 
Stupiditie ; and all beyond their sphere 
As Madnes, and but tingling in the Eare. 

[Final Verse.] 

Great Flame ! zvhose raies at once have power to peirce 

The frosted skull of Ignorance, and close 

The mouth of Envie ; if I bring a verse 

Unapt to move ; my admiration flovues 

With humble Love and Zeale in the intent 
To a cleare Rapture, from the Argument. 

(G. D.'s "A Vindication of Poesie.") 



End of Notes to Antidote. 



333 



APPENDIX. Part 



§ I. — EXTRA SONGS IN THE 

WESTMINSTER-DROLLERY, 1674. 

" A living Drollery I" (Shakespeare's Tempest, Act iii. sc. 3.) 

BEFORE concluding our present series, The 
Drolleries of the Restoration, we have gladly 
given in this volume the fourteen pages of Extra Songs 
contained in the 1674 edition of Westminster-Drol- 
lery ', Part 1 st. Sometimes reported as amounting to 
"nearly forty" (but, perhaps, this statement referred 
to the Second Part inclusive), it is satisfactory to have 
joined these six to their predecessors ; especially inso- 
much that our readers do not, like the original pur- 
chasers, have to pay such a heavy price as losing an 
equal number of pages filled with far superior songs. 
For, the 1671 Part First contained exactly 124 pages, 
and the 1674 edition has precisely the same number, 
neither more nor less. The omissions are not imme- 
diately consecutive, (as are the additions, which are 
gathered in one group in the final sheet, pp. 111-124.) 
They were selected, with unwise discrimination, 
throughout the volume. Not fourteen pages of ob- 
jectionable and xelinqmshdblQ facetite ; but ten songs, 



334 Appendix. 

from among the choicest of the poems. Our own 

readers are in better case, therefore : they gain the 

additions, without yielding any treasures of verse in 

exchange. 

We add a list of what are thus relinquished from the 
1674 edition, noting the pages of our Westm. D. on which 
they are to be found : — 

P. 5. Wm. Wycherley's, A Wife I do hate - 1671 

— 10. Dryden's, Phillis Unkind: Wherever I am do. 

— 15. Unknown, O you powerful gods, - - ? do. 

— 28. T. Shadwell's, Thus all our life long, - 1669 

— 30. Dryden's, Ceilamina, of my heart, - - 1671 

— 31. Ditto, Beneath a myrtle shade, - do. 
— 116. Ditto, Ditto (almost duplicate), - . do. 

— 47. Ditto, Make ready, fair Lady, - 1668 
. Etherege's, To little or no purpose, - - do. 

— 91. T. Carew's, O my dearest, I shall, &c, bef. 1638 
— 100. Ditto, or Cary's, Fareivell,fair Saint, bef. 1652 

Thus we see that most of these were quite new when 
the Westminster-Drollery first printed them (in four cases, 
at least, before the plays had appeared as books) : they 
were rejected three years later for fresh novelties. But 
the removal of Carew's tender poems was a worse offence 
against taste. 

Except the odd Quakers' Madrigall of "Wickham 
Wakened " (on p. i2o; our p. 188), which is not improb- 
ably by Joe Haynes, we believe the whole of the other five 
new songs of 1674 came from one work. We are unable 
at once to state the name and author of the drama in 
which they occur. The five are given (severely mutilated, 
in two instances) in Wit at a Venture j or, Clio's Privy- 
Garden, of the same date, 1674. Here, also, they form a 
group, pp. 33-42 ; with a few others that probably belong 
to the same play, viz., " Too weak are human eyes to 
pry ;" " Oh that I ne'er had known the power of Love;" 
" Must I be silent ? no, and yet forbear;" "Cease, wan- 
dering thought, and let her brain " (this is Shirley's, in 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 335 

the " Triumph of Beauty," 1645) > " How the vain world 
ambitiously aspires ;" " Heaven guard my fair Dorinda" 
and, perhaps, " Rise, golden Fame, and give thy name or 
birth." Titles are added to most of these. 



Page 179. So "wretched are the sick of Love, is, on p. 
37 of Wit at a Venture, entitled Distempered Love. The 
third verse is omitted. 

Page 181. To Arms! To Arms 1 ©V., on p. 39, en- 
titled The Souldier's Song ; 13th line reads " Where ive 
must try." 

Page 182. Beauty that it self can kill, on p. 35; 
reading, in 20th line, " When the fame and virtue falls (| 
Careless courage, &c. 

Page 183. The young, the fair, &c, on p. 33, is en- 
titled The Murdered Enemy ; reading Clarissa for Ca- 
milla ; and giving lines 17th and 19th, " Her beauties" 
and " Fierce Lions," &c. Line 23rd is " And not to 
check it in the least." 

Page 184. Hotv frailty makes us to our zurong. 

Called A Moral Song in Wit at a Venture, p. 41, which 
rightly reads " grovel," not " gravel/' in line 6 ; but 
omits third verse, and all the Chorus. 

Page 188. The Quaker and his Brats. 

We have not seen this elsewhere. Attributed to "the 
famous actor, Joseph Haines," or "Joe Haynes," 

Who, tvhile alive, in playing took great pains, 

Performing all his acts ivith curious art, 

Till Death appeared, and smote him ivith his dart. 

His portrait, as when riding on a Jack-ass, in 1697, is 
extant. He died 4th April, 1701, and was mourned by 
the Smithfield muses. 



;. 



33^ 



§ 2— ADDITIONAL NOTES 
To the 1671-72 Editions of 

WESTMINSTER-DROLLERY. 

Page 81. Is she gone ? let her go. 

This is a parody or mock on a black-letter ballad in the 
Roxburghe Collection, ii. 102, entitled "The Deluded 
Lasses Lamentation : or, the False Youth's Unkindness 
to his Beloved Mistress. " Its own tune. Printed for P. 
Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, J. Black. In four-line 
verses, beginning : — 

Is she gone ? let her go, I do not care, 
Though she has a dainty thing, I had my share : 
She has more land than I by one tvhole Acre, 
I have plowed in her field, ivho ivill may take her. 

Part I., p. 105. Hicjacet, John Shorthose. 

The music to this is in Jn. Playford's Musical Companion, 
1673, p. 34 (as also to " Here lyes a woman," &c. See 
Appendix to Westm. Droll., p. lviii). 

Part I.j p. 106. There is not half so ivarm, &c. 

See Choyce Drollery, 1656, p. 61, ante, and p. 293, for 
note correcting "daily" to "dully" in ninth line. 

Part II., p. 74 (App. p. Iv.) As Moss caught his Mare. 

Not having had space at command, when giving a short 
Addit. Note on p. 408 of M. D. C, we now add a nursery 
rhyme (we should gladly have given another, which men- 
tions catching the mare " Napping up a tree "). Perhaps 
the following may be the song reported as being sung in 
South Devon : — 






Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 337 

MOSS ivas a little man, and a little mare did buy, 
For kicking and for sprazvling none her could 
come nigh ; 
She could trot, she could amble, and could canter here 

and there, 
But one night she strayed aivay — so Moss lost his Mare. 

Moss got up next morning to catch her fast asleep, 
And round about the frosty fields so nimbly he did creep. 
Dead in a ditch he found her, and glad to find her there, 
So I'll tell you by and bye, hoiv Moss caught his mare. 

Rise ! stupid, rise ! he thus to her did say, 

Arise you beast, you droivsy beast, get up ivithout delay, 

For I must ride you to the toivn, so don't lie sleeping 

there, 
He put the halter round her neck — so Moss caught his 

mare. 

As that prematurely wise young sceptic Paul Dombey 
declared, when a modern-antique Legend was proffered 
to him, " I don't believe that story !" It is frightfully 
devoid of cerugo, even of teruca. It may do for South 
Devon, and for Aylesbury farmers over their " beer and 
bacca," but not for us. The true Mosse found his gen- 
uine mare veritably " napping " (not dead), up a real tree. 
In John Taylor's "A Sivarme of Sectaries and Schis- 
matiqves," 1641, his motto is (concerning Sam Howe 
lecturing from a tub), 

The Cobler preaches and his Audience are 

As ivise as Mosse ivas, ivhen he caught his Mare. 

Part II., page 89. Cheer up, my mates, &c. 

(See Appendix to Westm. Droll., p. lxii.) The author of 
this frollicsome ditty was no other than Abraham Cow- 
ley (1618-67), dear to all who know his choice "Essays 
in Prose and Verse," his unlaboured letters, the best of his 
smaller poems, or the story of his stainless life and gentle- 
ness. It is that noble thinker and poet, Walter Savage 
Landor, who writes, and in his finest mood : — 



338 Appendix. 

Time has been 
When Cowley shone near Milton, nay, above I 
An age roWd on before a keener sight 
Could separate and see them far apart. 

(Hellenics, edit. 1859, p. 258.) 

Yet while we yield unquestioningly the higher rank as 
Poet to John Milton, we hold the generous nature of 
his rival, Cowley, in more loving regard. He was not of 
the massive build in mind, or stern unflinching resolution 
needed for such times as those wherein his lot was cast. 
When the weakest goes to the wall, amid universal dis- 
turbance and selfish warring for supremacy, his was not 
the strong arm to beat back encroachment. Gentle, 
affectionate, and truthful, exceptionally pure and single- 
minded, although living as Queen Henrietta's secretary 
in her French Court, where impurity of thought and 
lightness of conduct were scarcely visited with censure, 
the uncongenial scenes and company around him help to 
enhance the charm of his mild disposition. Heartless 
wits might lampoon him, stealthy foes defame him, lest he 
should gain one favour or reward that they were hanker- 
ing after. To us he remains the lover of the " Old Pa- 
trician trees," the friend of Crashaw and of Evelyn, the 
writer of the most delightful essays and familiar letters : 
alas ! too few. 

The "Song" in Westminster-Drollery, ii. 89, set by 
Pelham Humphrey, is the opening verse of Cowley's 
" Ode : Sitting and Drinking in the Chair made out of 
the Reliques of Sir Francis Drake's Ship." [The chair 
was presented to the University Library, Oxford.] 

Corrections : dull men are those ivho tarry ; and spy 
too. Three verses follow. Of these we add the earliest, 
leaving uncopied the others, of 21 and 18 lines. They 
are to be found on p. 9 of Cowley's " Verses written on 
Several Occasions," folio ed., 1668. The idea of the 
shipwreck " in the wide Sea of Drink " had been early 
welcomed by him, and treated largely, Feb. 1638-9, in his 
Naufragium Joculare. 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 339 



What do I mean : What thoughts do me misguide ? 
As ivell upon a staff may Witches ride 

Their fancy *d Journies in the Ayr, 
As I sail round the Ocean in this Chair : 

' Tis true j but yet this Chair which here you see, 
For all its quiet now and gravitie, 
Has wandred, and has travail *d more 
Than ever Beast, or Fish, or Bird, or ever Tree before. 
In every Ayr, and every Sea V has been, 
9 T has comfas y d all the Earth, and all the Heavens 

*t has seen. 
Let not the Pope's it self with this compare, 
This is the only Universal Chair. 

It must have been written before 1661, as it appears 
among the " Choyce Poems, being Songs, Sonnets, &c, 
printed for Henry Brome, (who ten years afterwards pub- 
lished Westm. Droll.) at the Gun in I vie Lane, in that 
year. It is in the additional opening sheet, p. 13 ; not 
found in the 1658 editions of Choyce Poems. 

Westminster-Drollery Appendix, p. liv. "The Green 
Gown," Pan, leave piping, &c. 

Under the title " The Fetching Home of May," we 
meet an early ballad-form 'copy in the Roxburghe Col- 
lection, i. 535, printed for J. Wright, junior, dwelling at 
the upper end of the Old Bailey. It begins " Now Pan 
leaves piping/* and is in two parts, each containing five 
verses. Three of these are not represented in the Anti- 
dote of 1661. Wm. Chappell, the safest of all guides in 
such matters, notes that " the publisher [of the broadside] 
flourished in and after 1635. No clue remains to the 
authorship." (Bd. Soc. reprint, iii. 311, 1875.) 

As in the case of the companion-ditty, " Come, Lasses 
and Lads " ( Westm. Droll., ii. 80), we may feel satisfied 
that this lively song was written before the year 1642. 
No hint of the Puritanic suppression of Maypoles can be 
discerned in either of them. Such sports were soon 

Z 2 



m^ 



340 



Appendix. 



afterwards prohibited, and if ballads celebrating their 
past delights had then been newly written, the author 
must have yielded to the temptation to gird at the hypo- 
crites and despots who desolated each village green. We 
cannot regard the Roxburghe Ballad as being superior to 
the Antidote version : But they mutually help one another 
in corrections. We note the chief : first verse, So lively it 
passes; Good lack, what paines; 2, Thus they so much ; 
3 (our 4), Came very lazily. It is after the five verses 
that differences are greatest. Our 6th verse is absent, 
and our 7th appears as the 8th; with new 6th, 7th, 
9th, and 10th, which we here give, but print them to 
match our others : 

THE FETCHING HOME OF MAY. 

(The Second Part.) 

6. 

J His Maying so pleased || Most of the fine lasses, 
That they much desired to fetch in May flowers, 
For to strew the windows and such like places, 

Besides they'l have May bows, fit for shady bowers. 
But most of all they goe || To find where Love doth growe, 
Each young man knowes 'tis so, || Else hee's a clowne : 
For 'tis an old saying, || "There is great joying, 
When maids go a Maying," || They'll have a greene goivne [ 

7- 
Maidens and young men goe, || As 'tis an order old, 

For to drink merrily and eat spiced cakes ; 
The lads and the lasses their customs wil hold, 

For they wil goe walk i' th' fields, like loving mates : 
Em calls for Mary, || And Ruth calls for Sarah, 
Iddy calls for Har\r\y || To man them along : 
Martin calls Marcy, \\ Dick calls for Debary, 
Then they goe lovingly || All in a throng. 

8. ( Westm. Droll., 7.) 

The bright Apollo || Was all the while peeping 
To see if his Daphne had bin in the throng, 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 341 

And, missing her, hastily downward was creeping, 
For \Thetis~] imagined [he] they tarri'd too long. 
Then all the troope mourned || And homeward returned, 
For Cynthia scorned || To smile or to frowne : 
Thus did they gather May || All the long summer's day, 
And went at night away, || With a green goivne. 

9- 

Bright Venus still glisters, Out-shining of Luna ; 

Saturne was present, as right did require ; 
And he called Jupiter with his Queen Juno, 

To see how Dame Venus did burn in desire : 
Now Jove sent Mercury || To Vulcan hastily, 
Because he should descry [decoy] Dame Venus down : 
Vulkan came running, On Mars he stood frowning, 
Yet for all his cunning, || Venus had a greene goivne. 

10. 

Cupid shootes arrowes At Venus her darlings, 

For they are nearest unto him by kind : 
Diana he hits not, nor can he pierce worldlings, 

For they have strong armour his darts to defend : 
The one hath chastity, And Cupid doth defie ; 
The others cruelty || makes him a clowne : 
But leaving this I see, From Cupid few are free, 
And ther's much courtesie In a greene goivne. 



FINIS. 

We have a firm conviction that these verses (not in- 
cluding " The bright Apollo " ) were unauthorized addi- 
tions by an inferior hand, of a mere ballad-monger. We 
hold by the Antidote. 



Part II., 100, Appendix, p. lxviii. Here is the old 
ballad mentioned, from our own black-letter copy. Com- 
pare it with W. D. : — 



Z3 



342 Appendix. 

The Devonshire Damsels' 
Frollick. 

Being an Account of nine or ten fair Maidens, who went 
one Evening lately, to wash themselves in a pleasant 
River, where they were discovered by several Young 
Men being their familiar Acquaintances, who took away 
their Gowns and Petticoats, with their Smocks and Wine 
and good Chear; leaving them a while in a most melan- 
cholly condition. 

To a pleasant New Play-house Tune [music is given] : 
Or, Where's my Shepherd ? 

This may be Printed. R[obt]. P[ocock, 1685-8]. 

TOm and William ivith Ned and Ben, 
In all they were about nine or ten j 
Near a trickling River endeavour to see 

a most delicate sight for men j 
Nine young maidens they kneiv it full well, 
Sarah, Susan, tuith bonny Nell, 

and all those others ivhose names are not here, 

intended to ivash in a River clear. 
Simon gave out the report 

the rest resolving to see the sport [,] 

The Young freely repairing declaring 

that this is the humours of Venus Court [,] 
In a Boiver those Gallants remaine 

seeing the Maidens trip o're the plain [.-] 
They thought no Body did knoiv their intent 

as merrily over the Fields they ivent 

Nell a Bottle of Wine did bring 

ivith many a delicate dainty thing [,] 
Their Fainting Spirits to nourish and cherish 

ivhen they had been dabbling in the Spring [:] 
They supposing no Creature did knoiv 

to the River they merrily goe, 
When they came thither and seeing none near [,] 

Then under the bushes they hid their chear. 



Westminster-Drollery, 1674. 343 

Then they stripping of all their Cloaths 

their Goivns their Petticoats. Shooes & Hose [,] 
Their fine white smickits then stripping & skipping\_,\ 

no Body seeing them they suppose [,] 
Sarah entered the River so clear 

and bid them follow they need not fear [,] 
For ivhy the Water is warm they reply ed [,] 

then into the River they sweetly glide. 

Finely bathing themselves they lay 

like pretty Fishes they sport and play [,} 
Then let's be merry [,] said Nancy, I fancy, 

it's seldom that any one walks this way [.] 
Thus those Females were all in a Quill 

and following on their Pastime still [,] 
All naked in a most dainty trim 

those Maidens like beautifull Swans did swim. 

Whilst they followed on their Game [,] 

out came sweet William and Tom by name. 
They took all their Clothing and left nothing \t' 'em :] 

Maids was they not Villains and much to blame\j \ 
Likewise taking their Bottle of Wine [,] 

with all their delicate Dainties fine [:] 
Thus they were rifled of all their store, 

was ever poor Maidens so serv'd before. 

From the River those Maidens fair 

Return' d with sorrow and deep despair \f\ 
When they seeing, brooding[,~] concluding 

that somebody certainly had been there [,] 
With all their Treasure away they run [,] 

Alas [/] said Nelle[,] we are undone, 
Those Villains I wish they were in the Stocks, 

that took our Petticoats Goivns and Smocks. 

Then Sweet Sarah with modest Prue 

they all was in a most fearful Hue [,] 

Every Maiden replying and crying 

they did not know what in the world to do [.] 

Z4 



344 Appendix. 

But tvhat laughing ivas there ivith the men 

in bringing their Goivns and Smocks again [,] 

The Maidens ivere modest & mighty mute [,] 

and gave them fine curtsies and thanks to boot. 

Printed for P. Brooksby at the Golden Ball in Pye Corner 
[1672-95.] 

Part II., pp, 120, 123 (App. p. lxxii.) Love if e'er, 
&c. There is a parody or " Mock " to this, beginning 
" O Mars, if e'er thoult ease a blade," and entitled "The 
Martial Lad/ in Wm. Hicks' London Drollery, 1673, p, 
116. 



End of Notes to Westminster-Drollery . 



345 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 

APPENDIX. Part 4. 



§ I. EXTRA SONGS IN THE 

MERRY DROLLERY, 1661. 

(Not repeated in the 1670 and 1691 Editions.) 

Falstaff. — " If Sack and Sugar be a fault, Heaven help the 
wicked." {Henry IV., Pt. 1, Act ii. Sc. 4.) 

COLLECTIONS of Songs, depending chiefly on 
the popularity of such as are already in vogue, 
or of others that promise fairly to please the reader, 
are necessarily of all books the most liable to receive 
alterations when re-issued. Thus we ourselves possess 
half-a-dozen editions of the Roundelay, and also of the 
Bullfinch, both undated eighteenth-century songsters ; 
each copy containing a dozen or more of Songs not to be 
found in the others. Our Merry Drollery is a case in 
point. As already mentioned, there is absolutely no 
difference between the edition of 1670 and 1691 of 
Merry Drollery, Compleat, except the title-page. It 
was a well-understood trade stratagem, to re-issue the 
unsold sheets, those of 1670, with a freshly-dated title- 
page, as in 1691; so to catch the seekers after novelty 
by their most tempting lure. Even the two pages of 
"List of New Books" (reprinted conscientiously by 
ourselves in M. Z>., C, pp. 358, 359) are identical in 
both! 



346 Appendix. 

We take credit beforehand for the readers' satisfac- 
tion at our providing such a Table of First Lines, as we 
hereafter give, that may enable him easily and con- 
vincedly to understand the alterations made from the 
1 66 1 edition of Merry Drollery, both parts, when it 
was re-issued in a single volume, paged consecutively, 
in 1670 and 1691. It is more difficult to understand 
why the changes were made, than thus to see what 
they were. 1. It could not have been from modesty: 
although some objectionable pieces were omitted, 
others, quite as open to censure, were newly admitted 
instead. 2. Scarcely could it have been that as 
political satires they were out of date (except in the 
case of the Triumph over The Gang — England's Woe 
— and Admiral Dean's Funeral: our pp. 198, 218, 
206) ; for in the later volume are found other songs 
on events contemporary with these, which, being 
rightly considered to be of abiding interest, were re- 
tained. 3. It was not that the songs rejected were 
too common, and easily attainable ; for they are almost 
all of extreme rarity, and now-a-days not procurable 
elsewhere. 4. It must have been a whim that ostra- 
cised them, and accepted novelties instead ! At any 
rate, here they are ! As in the case of the sheet from 
Westminster-Drollery, 1674 (see p. 177), readers pos- 
sess the Extra Songs of both early and late editions, 
along with all that are common to both, and this with- 
out confusion. 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 347 

Almost all of these Merry Drollery Extra Songs 
were written before the Restoration ; of a few we know 
the precise date, as of 1653, 1650, 1623, &c. These 
are chiefly on political events, viz. the Funeral of 
Admiral Dean, so blithely commented on, with forget- 
fulness of the man's courage and skill while remem- 
bering him only as an associate of rebels ; the story of 
England's Woe (certainly published before the close 
of 1648), with scorn against the cant of Prynne and 
Burton ; the noisy, insensate revel of the song on the 
Goldsmith's Committee (1647, p. 237), where we can 
see in the singers such unruly cavaliers as those who 
brought discredit and ruin; as also in the coarser 
" Letany" (on our page 241) ; and in the still earlier 
description of New England (before 1643), which 
forms a most important addition to the already rich 
material gathered from these contemporary records, 
shewing the views entertained of the nonconforming 
and irreconcileable zealots who held close connection 
with the discontented Dutchmen. Although carica- 
tured and maliciously derisive, it is impossible to 
doubt that we have here a group of portraits suffi- 
ciently life-like to satisfy those who beheld the origi- 
nals. As to the miscellaneous pieces, the Sham- 
Tinker, who comes to " Clout the Cauldron," has 
genuine mirth to redeem the naughtiness. Dr. Cor- 
bet's (?) " Merrie Journey into France " is crammed 
full of pleasantry, and while giving a record of sights 



348 Appendix. 

that met the traveller, enlivens it with airy gaiety 
that makes us willing companions. This, with varia- 
tions, may be met with elsewhere in print ; but not so 
the delightfully sportive invitation of The Insatiate 
Lover to his Sweetheart, " Come hither, my own 
Sweet Duck " (p. 247). To us it appears among the 
best of these thirty-five additions : musical and fer 
vent, without coarseness, the song of an ardent lover 
who fears nothing, and is ripe for any adventure that 
war may offer. One of Rupert's reckless Cavaliers 
may have sung this to his Mistress. Of course it 
would be unfair to blame him for not being awake to 
the higher beauty of such a sentiment as Montrose 
felt and inspired : — 

But if thou wilt prove faithful, then, 

And constant of thy word, 
I'll make thee glorious by my pen, 

And famous by my sword : 
I'll serve thee in such noble ways 

Was never heard before ; 
I'll crown and deck thee all with bays, 

And love thee more and more. 

Or, as Lovelace nobly sings : — 

Tell me not, sweet, I am unkinde, 

That from the nunnerie 
Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde 

To warre and armes I flie. 

True : a new Mistresse now I chase, 

The first foe in the field ; 
And with a stronger faith embrace 

A sword, a horse, a shield. 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 349 

Yet this inconstancy is such 

As you too shall adore ; 
I could not love thee, dear, so much, 

Lov'd I not Honour more. 

C'est magnifique! mais ce n'est pas — U amour. At 
least, and we imply no more, Lovelace and those who 
act on such high principles, find their Lux Casta 
marrying some neighbouring rival. But we may be 
sure that the singer of our Merry Drollery ditty won 
his Lass, literally in a canter. 

Part I., p. 2 [our p. 195.] A Puritan of late. 

Compare John Cleveland's " Zealous Discourse between 
the Independent-Parson and Tabitha," " Hail Sister," 
&c. {J. C. Revived, 1662, p. 108) ; and also the superior 
piece of humour, beginning, " I came unto a Puritan to 
wooe," M. D., C, p. 77. The following description of 
the earlier sort of Precisian, ridiculous but not yet dan- 
gerous, is by Richard Brathwaite, and was printed in 
1615 :— 

To the Precisian. 

JipOr the Precisian that dares hardly looke, 
■*- (Because th' art pure, forsooth) on any booke, 
Save Homilies, and such as tend to th' good 
Of thee and of thy zealous brother-hood: 
Knovu my Time-noting lines ayme not at thee, 
For thou art too too curious for mee. 
I ivill not taxe that man that's ivont to slay 
" His Cat for killing mise on th' Sabbath day: ["] 
No j knovu my resolution it is thus, 
Vde rather be thy foe then be thy pus : 
And more should I gaine by't : for I see, 
The daily fruits of thy fraternity : 
Yea, I perceiue why thou my booke should shun, 
" Because there's many fault es th' art guiltie on :" 



350 Appendix. 

Therefore ivith-draive, by me thou art not call'd, 
Yet do not ivinch (good iade) ivhen thou art galVd, 
I to the better sort my lines display, 
I pray thee then keep^thou thy selfe aivay. 

( A Strappado for the Diuell, 1 6 1 5 . ) 

The sixth line offers another illustration of what has been 
ably demonstrated by J. O. Halliwell, commenting on 
the <e too-too solid flesh " of Hamlet, Act i. sc. 2, in Shake- 
speare Soc. Papers, i. 39-43, 1844. 

By it being printed within double quotational commas, 
we see that the reference to a Puritan hanging his cat on 
a Monday, for having profanely caught a mouse on the 
Sabbath-Sunday, was already an old and familiar joke 
in 1 615. James Hogg garbled a ballad in his Jacobite 
Relics, 1 819, i. 37, as "There ivas a Cameronian Cat, 
Was hunting for a prey," &c, but we have a printed copy 
of it, dated 1749, beginning "A Presbyterian Cat sat 
ivatching of her prey" Also, in a poem " On Lute- 
strings, Cat-eaten," we read : — 

Puss, I ivill curse thee, maist thou divell 

With some dry Hermit in a Cel, 

Where Rat ne'repeep'd, ivhere Mouse ne'er fed, 

And Flies go supperlesse to bed: 

Or ivith some close par'd Brother, ivhere 

Thou' It fast each Sabbath in the year e> 

Or else, profane, be hang'd on Monday, 

For butchering a Mouse on Sunday, &c. 

(Musarum Delicice, 1656, p. 53.) 

John Taylor, the Water-Poet, so early as 1620, writes 
of a Brownist : — 

The Spirit still directs him hoiv to pray, 
Nor ivill he dress his meat the Sabbath day, 
Which doth a mighty mystery unfold ; 
His zeale is hot, although his meat be cold. 
Suppose his Cat on Sunday kill'd a rat, 
She on the Monday must be hang' 'd for that. 

(J. P. C/s Bibl. Ace, ii. 418.) 



Merry Drollery ', 1661. 351 

Page 11 [our 197]. I dreamt my Love, &c. 

In the Percy Folio MS. (about 1650) p. 480 5 E. E. T. S., 
iv. 102, with a few variations, one of which we have noted 
in margin of p. 181. The industrious editors of the printed 
text of the Percy Folio MS. were not aware of the fact that 
many of the shorter pieces were already to be found in 
print j but this is no wonder. They are not easy to dis- 
cover (see next p. 352), and although we ourselves note 
occasionally " not found elsewhere," it is with the remem- 
brance that a happy " find" may yet reward a continuous 
search hereafter. We do not despair of recovering even 
the lost line of " The Time-Poets." 



Page 12 [our 198]. Noiv Lambert's sunk, &c. 

In the 1662 edit, of the Rump, i. 330, and in Loyal Sgs., 
1 731, i. 219. It may have been written so early as Jan. 
15th, 1659-60, when Col. Lambert had submitted to the 
Parliament, on finding the troops disinclined to support 
him unanimously. Another ballad made this inuendo : — 

John Lambert at Oliver's Chair did roare, 
And thinks it but reason upon this score, 
That Cromwell had sitten in his before ; 

Still blessed Reformation. (Rump, ii. 99.) 

Fairfax had returned to his house, and to Monk were 
given the thanks of the rescued Parliament. As M. de 
Bordeaux writes of him to Card. Mazarin, at this exact 
date, "he is now the most powerful subject in the whole 
nation. Fleetwood, Desborough, and all the others of 
the same faction are entirely out of employment" (Guizot's 
Monk, 1851, p. 156). Although no mention or definite 
allusion seems made in the ballad to Monk's attack on 
the London defences, Feb. 9th, we incline to think this 
may be nearer to the true date : if it refers to the oath of 
abjuration, of Feb. 4th, which was offered to Monk, as 
on March 1st. "Arthur's Court" is an allusion to Sir 
Arthur Haselrig, "a rapacious, head-strong, and con- 
ceited agitator" (Ibid, p. 37). Monk had not publicly 



352 Appendix. 

declared himself for the King until May; but he was 
seen to be opposed to the Rump by nth Feb., when its 
effigies were enthusiastically burnt. Richard Cromwell's 
abdication had been, virtually, April 22nd, 1659. 

Page 32 [204]. A young man walking all alone. 

This is another of the songs contained in the Percy Folio 
MS. (p. 460; iv. 92 of print); wrongly supposed to be 
otherwise lost, but imperfect there, our fourth and fifth 
verses being absent. We cannot accept "if that I may 
thy favour haue, thy betutye to behold," as the true read- 
ing; while we find " If that thy favour I may ivin With 
thee for to be bold ." which is much more in the Lover's 
line of advance. Yet we avail ourselves of the " I am so 
mad " in 3rd verse, because it rhymes with " maiden- 
head," in M. D., though not suiting with the " honestye " 
of the P. F. MS. The final half- verse is different. 



Page 56 [206]. Nick Culpepper and Wm. Lilly. 

Also in 1662 edition of the Rump, i. 308 ; and Loyal 
Songs, 1 73 1, i. 192. The event referred to happened in 
June, 1653, tne engagement between the English and 
Dutch fleets commencing on the 2nd, renewed the next 
day. Six of the Dutch ships were sunk, and twelve taken, 
with thirteen hundred prisoners. Blake, Monk, and Dean 
were the English commanders, until Dean was killed, the 
first day. Monk took the sole command on the next. 
Clarendon gives an account of the battle, and says : 
"Dean, one of the English Admirals, was killed by a can- 
non-shot from the Rear-Admiral of the Dutch," before 
night parted them. " The loss of the English was greatest 
in their General Dean. There was, beside him, but one 
Captain, and about two hundred Common Sea-men 
killed : the number of the wounded was greater ; nor did 
they lose one Ship, nor were they so disabled but that 
they followed with the whole fleet to the coast of Holland, 
whither the other fled ; and being got into the Flie 
and the Texel, the English for some time blocked them 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 353 

up in their own Harbors, taking all such Ships as came 
bound for those parts. (His. Reb., B. iii. p. 487, ed. 1720.) 

Verse 1. Nicholas Culpeper, of Spittle Fields, near 
London, published his New Method of Physick, and 
Alchemy, in 1654. 

As to William Lilly, "the famous astrologer of those 
times, who in his yearly almanacks foretold victories for 
the Parliament with so much certainty as the preachers 
did in their sermons," consult his letter written to Elias 
Ashmole, and the notes of Dr. Zachary Gray to Butler's 
Hudibras, Part ii. 'Canto 3. " He lived to the year 1681, 
being then near eighty years of age, and published pre- 
dicting almanacks to his death." He was one of the close 
committee to consult about the King's execution (Echard). 
He lost much of his repute in 1652; in 1655 he was in- 
dicted at Hickes Hall, but acquitted. He dwelt at Her- 
sham, Walton-on-Thames, and elsewhere. Henry Coley 
followed him in almanack-making, and John Partridge 
next. In the Honble. Robt. Howard's Comedy, " The 
Committee," 1665, we find poor Teague has been con- 
sulting Lilly : — 

"/ vuill get a good Master, if any good Master vuou'd 
Get me; I cannot tell ivhat to do else, by my soul, that 
I cannot j for I have tvent and gone to one Lilly's ; 
He lives at that house, at the end of another house, 
By the May-pole house ; and tells every body by one 
Star, and f other Star, ivhat good luck they shall have. 
But he cou'd not tell nothing for poor Teg." 

( The Committee, Act i.) 

Verse 12. The Master of the Rolls. This was Sir 
Dudley Digges, builder of Chilham Castle, near Canter- 
bury, Kent, who had in 1627 moved the impeachment of 
the Duke of Buckingham, and been rewarded with this 
Mastership. 

Verse 18. Alludes to the rigorous suppression of the 
Play-houses (vide ante p. 285, for a descriptive Song) ; 
and as we see from verse 17, the Bear-garden, like Rope- 
dancers and Tumblers, met more tolerance than actors 
(except from Colonel Pride). Not heels were feared, but 

A A 



354 Appendix. 

heads and hands. Bears, moreover, could not stir up 
men to loyalty, but tragedy-speeches might. One Joshua 
Gisling, a Roundhead, kept bears at Paris Garden, South- 
wark. 

23. "Goodman Lenthall" "neither wise nor witty," 
("that creeps to the house by a backdoor," Rump, ii. 
185,) the Speaker of the Commons from 1640 to 1653; 
Alderman Allen, the dishonest and bankrupt goldsmith, 
both rebuked by Cromivell, when he forcibly expelled the 
Rump. (See the ballad on pp. 62-5 of M. D., C, verses 
9 and 10, telling how "Allen the coppersmith was in great 
fear. He had done as [i.e. us] much hurt," &c. ; also 2, 
15, for the dumb-foundered "Speaker without his Mace.") 
This Downfall of the Rump had been on April 20th, 1653, 
not quite three months before the funeral of Dean. Who- 
ever may have been the writer of this spirited ballad, we 
believe, wrote the other one also : judging solely by in- 
ternal evidence. 

24. Henry Ireton, who married Bridget Cromwell in 
January, 1646-7, and escaped from the Royalists after 
having been captured at Naseby, proved the worst foe of 
Charles, insatiably demanding his death, died in Ireland 
of the plague, 15th November, 1651. His body was 
brought to Bristol in December, and lay in state at Som- 
erset House. Over the gate hung the " hatchment " 
with " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " — which one 
of the Cavaliers delightedly translated, " Good it is for 
his country that he is dead." Like Dean's, two years 
later, Ireton's body was buried with ostentatious pomp in 
Henry VII. 's Chapel, (Feb. 6 or 7 -,) to be ignominiously 
treated at Tyburn after the Restoration. The choice of 
so royal a resting-place brought late insult on many 
another corpse. His widow was speedily married to 
Charles Fleetwood, before June, 1652. 

In verse 26, we cannot with absolute certainty fill the 
blank. Yet, in the absence of disproof, we can scarcely 
doubt that the name suppressed was neither Sexby, "an 
active agitator," who, in 1658, employed against Crom- 
well "all that restless industry which had formerly been 
exerted in his favour" (Hume's Hist. Engd., cap. lxi.); 



_J 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 355 

nor '•' Doomsday Sedgwick ;" not Sidney, staunch Re- 
publican, Algernon Sidney, whose condemnation was in 
1687 secured most iniquitously, and whose death more 
disgracefully stains the time than the slaughter of Rus- 
sell, although sentimentalism chooses the latter, on ac- 
count of his wife. Sidney was "but a young member" 
at the Dissolution of 20th April, 1653. Probably the 
word was Say, the notorious "Say and Seale," "Crafty 
Say," of whom we read : — 

There's half-twitted Will Say too, 
A right Fool in the Play too, 
That ivould make a perfect Ass, 
If he could learn to Bray too. 

("Chips of the Old Block," 1659; Rump, ii. 17.) 



Page 64 [213]. Iiventfrom England, &c. 

A MS. assertion gives the date of this "Cantilena de 
Gallico itinere as 1623. There seems to us no good rea- 
son for doubting that the author was Dr. Richard 
Corbet (1582-1635), Bishop of Oxford, afterwards of 
Norwich. It is signed Rich. Corbett in Harl. MS. No. 
6931, fol. 32, rcuerso, and appears among his printed 
poems, 3rd edit. 1672, p. 129. In Wit and Mirth, 1684, 
p. 76, it is entitled " Dr. Corbet's Journey," &c. But it 
is fair to mention that we have found it assigned to R. 
Goodwin, by the epistolary gossip of inaccurate old 
Aubrey (see Col. Franc. Cunningham's "Mermaid edit." 
of Ben Jonson, i. Memoirs, p. lvii. first note). In a re- 
cent edition of Sir John Suckling's Works, 1874, it is 
printed as if by him (" There is little doubt that it is 
his "), i. 102, without any satisfactory external evidence 
being adduced in favour of Suckling. In fact, the exter- 
nal evidence goes wholly against the theory. The very 
MS. Harl. 367, which is used as authority, is both imper- 
fect and corrupt throughout, as well as anonymous {ex. 
gratice, misreading the Bastern, for Bastile), and the date 
on it, 1623, will not suit Suckling at all : though Sir Hy. 
Ellis is guessed ( by his supposed handwriting,) to 

A A 2 



356 Appendix. 

have attributed it to him. Could it be possible that he 
was otherwise unacquainted with the poem ? 

At earlier date than our own copy we find it, by 
Aug. 30th, 1656, in Musarum Delicice, p. 17, and in 
Parnassus Biceps, also 1656, p. 24. From this (as well 
as Harl. MS. 367 ) we gain corrections printed as 
our marginalia, pp. 214-6 : deserv' 'd, for received ; 
statue stairs, At Notre Dame j prate, doth please, 
&c. Harl. MS. 367 reads "The Indian Roc [probably 
it is correct]; and "As great and wise as Luisue" 
[Luines, who died 1622]. Parnassus Biceps has an extra 
verse, preceding the one beginning " His Queen," (and 
Harl. 367 has it, but inferior) : — 

The people don't dislike the youth, 
Alleging reasons. For in truth 

Mothers should honoured be. 
Yet others say, he loves her rather 
As well as ere she loved his father, 

And that's notoriously. 

(A similar scandal meets us in other early French 
reigns : Diana de Poictiers had relations with Henry II., 
as well as with his father, Francis I., &c.) Compare 
West. Droll., i. 87, and its Appendix, pp. xxv-vi. 

It may be a matter of personal taste, but we cannot 
recognize the genial Bishop in the " R. C, Gent.," who 
wrote " The Times Whistle." A reperusal of the E. E. 
T., 1871, almost convinces us that they were not the same 
person. We must look elsewhere for the author. 

In MS., on fly leaf, prefixed to 1672 edition of Dr. 
Corbet's poems, in the Brit. Mus. (press mark, 238, b. 
56), we read : — 

/F flowing tvit, if Verses wrote ivith ease, 
If learning void of pedantry can please, 
If much good humour, joined to solid sense, 
And mirth accompanied by Innocence, 
Can give a Poet a just right to fame, 
Then Corbet may immortal honour claim. 
For he these virtues had, & in his lines 
Poetick and Heroick spirit shines. 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 357 

Tho* bright yet solid, pleasant but not rude. 
With tvit and 'wisdom equally endued. 
Be silent Muse, thy praises are too faint, 
Thou ivant'st a poiver this prodigy to paint, 
At once a Poet, Prelate, and a Saint. 

Signed, John Campbell. 



Page 85 [218]. i" mean to speak of England's, fife. 

In the 1662 Rump, i. 39; and in Loyal Songs, 1731, i. 12. 
It is also in Parnassus Biceps so early as 1656, p. 159, 
where we obtain a few peculiar readings ; even in the 
first line, which has "of England's fate;" "Prin and 
Burton ;" " nvear Italian locks for their abuse (instead of 
" Stallion locks for a bush"); They'll only have private 
keyes for their use," &c. We are inclined to accept these 
as correct readings, although our text (agreeing with the 
Rump) holds an intelligible meaning. But those who 
have inspected the curiosities preserved in the Hotel de 
Cluny, at Paris, can scarcely have forgotten " the Italian 
[pad-] Locks " which jealous husbands imposed upon 
their wives, as a preservative of chastity, whenever they 
themselves were obliged to leave their fair helpmates at 
home ; and the insinuation that Prynne and Burton in- 
tended to introduce such rigorous precautions, neverthe- 
less retaining " private keyes " for their own use, has a 
covert satire not improbable to have been intentional. 
Still, remembering the persistent war waged by these in- 
tolerant Puritans against " the unloveliness of love-locks," 
there are sufficient claims for the text-reading : in their 
denunciation of curled ringlets "as Stallion locks " hung 
out "for a bush," or sign of attraction, such as then 
dangled over the wine-shop door (and may still be seen 
throughout Italy), although "good wine needs no bush " 
to advertise it. Instead of "The brownings," (i.e. The 
Broivnists, a sect that arose in the reign of Elizabeth, 
founded by Robt. Browne), in final verse, Parnassus 
Biceps reads "The Roundheads." The poem was evi- 
dently written between 1632 and 1642. 

AA3 



358 Appendix. 

Strengthening the probability of " Italian locks " being 
the correct reading, we may mention in one of the Rump 
ballads, dated 26 January, 1660-1, we find "The Honest 
Mens Resolution " is to adopt this very expedient : — 

"But what shall ive do ivith our Wives 
That frisk up and doivn the Town, . . . 

For such a Bell-dam, 

Sayes Sylas and Sam, 

Let's have an Italian Lock ! 

{Rump Coll., 1662, ii. 199.) 

Page 88 [220]. Hang Chastity, ©V. 

Probably refers to the New Exchange, at Durham House 
stables (see Additional Note to page 134 of M. D., C). 
Certainly written before 1656. Lines 15 and 32 lend 
some countenance, by similarity, to the received version 
in the previous song's sixth verse. 

Page 95 [222]. It was a man, and a jolly, isfc. 

With some trifling variations, this re-appears as "The 
Old Man and Young Wife, beginning "There was an old 
man, and a jolly old man, come love me" &c, in Wit and 
Mirth, 1684, p. 17. The tune and burden of " The Clean 
Contrary Way " held public favour for many years. See 
Pop, Mus. 0. T.j pp. 425, 426, 781. In the 1658 and 1661 
editions of Choyce Poems [by John Eliot, and others], pp. 
81, are a few lines of verse upon "The Fidler's that were 
committed for singing a song called, " The Clean Contrary 
Way"-.— 

'T^He Fidlers must he whipt the people say, 

J- Because they sung the clean contrary way ; 

Which if they he, a Crown I dare to lay 

They then will sing the clean contrary way. 

And he that did these merry Knaves betray, 

Wise men will praise, the clean contrary way : 

For whipping them no envy can allay, [p. 82.] 

Unlesse it he the clean contrary way. 

Then if they went the Peoples tongues to stay, 
Doubtless they went the clean contrary way. 



Merry Drollery, 1 66 1 . 359 

Page 134 [223]. There ivas a Lady in this Land. 
Re-appears in Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 291 (not in the 
1656 and 1661 editions), as " The Jovial Tinker," but 
with variations throughout, so numerous as to amount to 
absolute re-casting, not by any means an improvement : 
generally the contrary. Here are the second and follow- 
ing verses, of Wit and Drollery version : — 

But she ivrit a letter to him, 

And seaVd it ivith her hand, 
And bid him become a Tinker 

To clout both pot and pan. 

And tuhen he had the Letter, 

Full ivell he could it read j 
His Brass and eke his Budget, [p. 292.] 

He str eight ivay did provide, 

His Hammer and his Pincers 

And ivell they did agree 
With a long Club on his Back 

And orderly came he. 

And tuhen he came to the Lady's Gates 

He knock' d most lustily, 
Then tuho is there the Porter said, 

That knock' st thus ruggedly? 

I am a Jovial Tinker, &c. 

The words of a later Scottish version of " Clout the Caul- 
dron," beginning " Hae ye ony pots or pans, Or ony 
broken Chandlers ?" (attributed by Allan Cunningham to 
one Gordon) retouched by Allan Ramsay, are in his Tea- 
Table Miscellany, 1724, Pt. i. (p. 96 of 17th edit., 1788.) 
Burns mentions a tradition that the song " was composed 
on one of the Kenmure family in the Cavalier time." But 
the disguised wooer of the later version is repulsed by the 
lady. Ours is undoubtedly the earlier. 

Page 148 [230]. Upon a Summer's day. 

The music to this is given in Chappell's Pop. Music of 
Olden Time [1855], p. 255, from the Dancing Master, 

A A 4 



360 Appendix. 

1650-65, and Mustek's Delight on the Cithern, 1666, where 
the tune bears the title " Upon a Summer's day." In 
Pepy's Collection^ vol. i. are two other songs to the same 
tune. 

Page 153 [Suppl. 3]. Mine own sweet honey, &c. 

Evidently a parody, or " Mock " of " Come hither, my 
own," &c, for which, and note, see pp. 247, 367. 

Second Part of Merry Drollery, 1661. 

Page 22 [235]. You that in love, &c. 

A different version of this same song, only half its length, 
in four-line stanzas, had appeared in J. Cotgrave's Wit's 
Interpreter, 1655. p. 124. It is also in the 1671 edition, p. 
229 ; and in Wit and Drollery, 1682 edit., 287, entitled 
" The Tobacconist." We prefer the briefer version, 
although bound to print the longer one ; bad enough, but 
not nearly so gross as another On Tobacco, in Jovial 
Drollery^ 1656, beginning "When I do smoak my nose 
with a pipe of Tobacco." 

In the Collection of Songs by the Wits of the Age, 
appended to Le Prince d' Amour, 1660, (but on broadsheet, 
1 641) we find the following far-superior lyric on 

TOBACCO. 

'T^O feed on Flesh is Gluttony, 
■L It maketh men fat like swine. 
But is not he a frugal Man 
That on a leaf can dine ! 

He needs no linnen for to foul, 

His fingers ends to wipe, 
That hath his Kitchin in a Box, 

And roast meat in a Pipe. 

The cause wherefore few rich mens sons 

Prove disputants in Schools, 
Is that their fathers fed on flesh, 

And they begat fat fools. 



^ 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 361 

This fulsome feeding cloggs the brain, 

And doth the stomack cloak j 
But he's a brave spark that can dine 

With one light dish of smoak. 

Audi alter em partem 1 Five years earlier (May 28th, 
I0 55), William Winstanley had published "A Farewell to 
Tobacco/' beginning : — 

T^Areivell thou Indian smoake, Barbarian 'vapour, 
■*■ Enemy unto life, foe to ivaste paper, 
Thou dost diseases in thy body breed, 
And like a Vultur on the purse doth feed. 
Changing siveet breaths into a stinking loathing, 
And ivith 3 pipes turnes tivo pence into nothing ; 
Grim Pluto first invented it, I think, 
To poison all the ivorld ivith hellish stink, &fc. 

(18 lines more. The Muses' Cabinet, 1655, p. 13.) 

The three pipes for two-pence was a cheapening of To- 
bacco since the days, not a century before, when for price 
it was weighed equally against gold. Our early friend 
Arthur Tennyson wrote in one of our (extant) Florentine 
sketch-books the following impromptu of his own : — 

/Walk'd by myself on the highest of hills, 
And 'twas siveet, I ivith rapture did oivn ; 
As fish-like I opened unto it my gills 
And gulp'd it in ecstasy doivn ; 
To feel it breathe over my bacca-boiled tongue, 
That so much of its fragrance did need, 
And brace up completely a system unstrung 
For months ivith this Devil's own Weed. 

But even so early as 1639, Thomas Bancroft had printed, 
(written thirteen years before) in his First Booke of Epi- 
grammes, the following, 

ON TOBACCO TAKING. 

*T^He Old Germans, that their Divinations made 
•*- From Asses heads upon hot embers laid, 
Saiv they but noiv what frequent fumes arise 
From such dull heads, ivhat could they prophetize 



362 Appendix. 

But speedy firing of this 'worldly frame. 

That seemes to stinke for fear e of such aflame. 

(Tzuo Bookes of 'Epi grammes , No. 183, sign. E 3.) 

We need merely refer to other Epigrams On Tobacco, 
as " Time's great consumer, cause of idlenesse," and 
" Nature's Idea," &c, in Wit's Recreations, 1640-5, be- 
cause they are accessible in the recent Reprint (would 
that it, Wit Restored and Musarum Delicice had been 
carefully edited, as they deserved and needed to be ; but 
even the literal reprint of different issues jumbled to- 
gether pell-mell is of temporary service ) : see vol. ii., pp. 
45, 38 ; and 96, 97, 139, 161, 227, 271. Also p. 430, for 
the " Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale," attrib- 
uted to F. Beaumont, (if so, then before 1616) telling 

Of the Gods and their symposia ; 
But Tobacco alone, 
Had they knoivn it, had gone 

For their Nectar and Ambrosia j 

and vol. i. p. 195, on "A Scholler that sold his Cussion" 
to buy tobacco. It is but an imperfect version on ii. 96, 
headed "A Tobacconist" (eight lines), of what we gave 
from Le Prince d' Amour : it begins "All dainty meats I 
doe defie, || Which feed men fat as swine." Answered 
by No. 317, " On the Tobacconist," p. 97. By the way: 
" Verrinus" in M. D., C, pp. 10, 364, consult History of 
Signboards, p. 354 — " Puyk van Verinas en Virginia 
Tabac j" Englished, " Tip-Top Varinas," &c. 

Page 27 [237]. Come Draiver, some Wine. 

Probably written by Thomas Weaver, and about 
1646-8. It is in his collection entitled Love and Drollery, 
1654, p. 13. Also in the 1662 Rump, i. 235; and the 
Loyal Garland, 1686 (Percy Soc. Reprint, xxix. 31 ). 
Compare a similar Song (probably founded on this one) 
by Sir Robt. Howard, in his Comedy, " The Committee," 
Act iv., " Come, Drawer, some Wine, Let it sparkle and 
shine," — or, the true beginning, " Now the Veil is thrown 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 363 

off/ &c. The Committee of Sequestration of Estates 
belonging to the Cavaliers sat at Goldsmith's Hall, while 
Charles was imprisoned at Carisbrook, in 1647. A ballad 
of that year, entitled Prattle your pleasure under the 
Rose," has this verse : — 

Under the rose he it spoken, there' 's a damn'd Committee, 
Sits in hell (Goldsmith's Hall) in the midst of the City, 
Only to sequester the poor Cavaliers, — 
The Devil take their souls, and the hangmen their ears. 

(As Hamlet says, " You pray not well ! " — but such pro- 
vocation transfers the blame to those who caused the 
anger.) 

Again, in another Ballad, " I thank you twice," dated 
2 1 st August, same year, 1647 : — 

The gentry are sequestered all j 
Our wives we find at Goldsmith's Hall, 
For there they meet ivith the devil and all, 
Still, God a-mercy, Parliament I" 

On our p. 239, it is amusing to find reference to "the 
Cannibals of Pym," remembering how Lilburn and others 
of that party indulged in similar accusations of cannibal- 
ism, with specific details against " Bloody Bones, or 
Lunsford " {Hudibras, Pt. iii. canto 2), who was killed in 
1644. Thus, " From Lunsford eke deliver us, || That 
eateth up children" (Rump i. 65) ; and Cleveland writes, 
" He swore he saw, when Lunsford fell, || A child's arm 
in his pocket" (J. C. Revived, Poems, 1662, p. no). 



Page 32 [240]. Listen, Lordings, to my story. 

With the music, this reappears in Pills to p. Mel., 1719, 
iv. 84, entitled " The Glory of all Cuckolds." Variations 
few, and unimportant : " The Man in Heaven's " being 
a very doubtful reading. In the Douce Collection, iv. 41, 
42, are two broadsides, A New Summons to Horn Fair, 
beginning " You horned fumbling Cuckolds, In - City, 
court, or Town," and (To the women) "Come, all you 
merry jades, who love to play the game," with capital 



364 Appendix. 

wood-cuts: Jn Pitts, printer. They recal Butler's des- 
cription of the Skrimmington. The joke was much 
relished. Thus, in Lusty Drollery, 1656, p. 106, is a 
Pastorall Song, beginning: — 

A silly poor sheephcrd tvas folding his sheep, 
He ivalked so long he got cold in his feet. 
He laid on his coales by tnvo and by three, 
The more he laid on 
The Cu-colder ivas he. 

Three verses more, with the recurring witticism ; repeated 
finally by his wife. 

Page 33 [Supp. 6]. Discourses of late, ®c. 

Also, earlier in Musarum Delicice, 1656, (Reprint, p. 48) 
as " The Louse's Peregrinations," but without the sixth 
verse. Breda, in the Netherlands, was beseiged by 
Spinola for ten months, and taken in 1625. Bergen, in 
our text, is a corrupt reading. 

Page 38 [241]. From Essex- Anabaptist Laives. 

We do not understand whence it cometh that the most 
bitter non-conformity and un-Christian crazes of enthu- 
siasm seem always to have thriven in Essex and the 
adjacent Eastern coast-counties, so far as Lincolnshire, 
but the fact is undeniable. Whether (before draining the 
fens, see " The Upland people are full of thoughts," in 
A Creuj of kind London Gossips, 1663, p. 65) this pro- 
ceeded from their being low-lying, damp, dreary, and 
dismal, with agues prevalent, and hypochondria welcome 
as an amusement, we leave others to determine. Cabanis 
declared that Calvinism is a product of the small intes- 
tines ; and persons with weak circulation and slow diges- 
tion are seldom orthodox, but incline towards fanaticism 
and uncompromising dissent. Your lean Cassius is a 
pre-ordained conspirator. Plain people, whether of 
features or dwelling-place, think too much of themselves. 
Mountaineers may often hold superstitions, but of the 
elemental forces and higher worship. They possess 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 365 

moreover a patriotic love of their native hills, which 
makes them loth to quit, and eager to revisit them, with 
all their guardian powers : the nostalgia and amor patriae 
are strongest in Highlanders, Switzers, Spanish muleteers, 
and even Welsh milkmaids. It was from flat-coasted 
Essex that most of the " peevish Puritans " emigrated to 
Holland, and thence to America, when discontented with 
every thing at home. 

The form of a Le'tanty or Litany, for such mock- 
petitions as those in our text ( not found elsewhere ), and 
in M.D.,C, p. 174, continued in favour from the uprise of 
the Independents ( simply because they hated Liturgies ), 
for more than a century. In the King's Pamphlets, in 
the various collections of Loyal Songs, Songs on affairs of 
State, the Mughouse Diversions, Pills to purge State 
Melancholly, Tory Pills, &c, we possess them beyond 
counting, a few being attributed to Cleveland and to 
Butler. One, so early as 1600, "Good Mercury, defend 
us ! " is the work of Ben Johnson. 

Verse 1. — The " Brownist's Veal " refers to Essex 
calves, and the scandal of one Green, who is said to have 
been a Brownist. 4. — "From her that creeps up Hol- 
bourne hill :" the cart journey from Newgate to the "tree 
with three corners" at Tyburn. Sicitur ad astra. When, 
Oct. 1654, Cromwell was thrown from the coach-box in 
driving through Hyde park, a ballad on " The Jolt on 
Michaelmas Day, 1654," took care to point the moral : — 

Not a day nor an hour 
But ivefelt his power, 

And noiv he vuould shozv us his art ; 
His first reproach 
Is a fall from a coach, 

And his last will be from a cart. 

{Rump Coll. i. 362.) 
Thus also in M.D.,C. p. 255 : 

Then Oliver, Oliver, get up and ride, .... 
Till thou plod'st along to the Paddington tree. 

5. — " Duke Humphrey's hungry dinner " refers to the 
tomb popularly supposed to be of "the good Duke" 



366 Appendix. 

Humphrey of Gloucester (murdered 1447), but probably 
of Sir John Beauchamp (Guy of Warwick's son), in Paul's 
Walk, where loungers whiled away the dinner-hour if 
lacking money for an Ordinary, and " dined with Duke 
Humphrey." See Dekker's Gulls Horn Book, 1609. 
cap. iv. And Robt. Hayman writes : — 

Though a little coin thy purseless pockets line, 
Yet tvith great company thou'rt taken up 2 
For often ivith Duke Humfray thou dost dine, 
And often ivith Sir Thomas Gresham sup. 

(R. H.'s Quodlibets, 1628.) 

"An old Aunt" — this term used by Autolycus, had tem- 
porary significance apart from kinship, implying loose 
behaviour ; even as " nunkle " or uncle, hails a mirthful 
companion. In Roxb. Coll., i. 384, by L[aur.] P[rice], 
printed 1641-83," is a description of three Aunts, "seldom 
cleanly," but they were genuine relations, though " the 
best of all the three " seems well fitted by the Letany 
description : which may refer to her. 

Page 46 [Supp. p. 7]. If you tvill give ear. 

A version of this, slightly differing, is given with the 
music in Pills to p. Mell., iv. 191. It has the final coup- 
let ; which we borrow and add in square brackets. 

Page 61 [Supp. 9]. Full forty times over. 

Earlier by six years, but without the Answer, this had 
appeared in Wit and Drollery, 1656, p. 58; 1661, p. 60. 
It is also, as " written at Oxford," in second part of Ox- 
ford Drollery, 1671, p. 97. 

Page 62 [Supp. 11]. He is a fond Lover, &c. 

This, and the preceding, being superior to the other re- 
served songs might have been retained in the text but for 
the need to fill a separate sheet. This Answer is in 
Love and Mirth (i.e. Sportive Wit) 1650, p. 51. 



Merry Drollery, 1661. 367 

Page 64 [Supp. 12]. If any one do ivant a House. 

Virtually the same (from the second verse onward) as 
" A Tenement to Let/' beginning " I have a Tenement," 
&c, in Pills to p. Mel., 1720, vi. 355; and The Merry 
Musician (n. d. but about 1716), i. 43. Music in both. 

Page 81 [Supp, 13]. Fair Lady, for your Ne%v, &c, 

Resembling this is "Ladies, here I do present you, With a 
dainty dish of fruit," in Wit and Drollery, 1656, p. 103. 

Page 103 [244]. Among the Purifidian Sect. 

In Harl. MS. No. 6057, fol. 47. There it is entitled 
" The Puritans of New England." 

Page 106 [248]. Come hither, my oivn siveet Duck. 

We come delightedly, as a relief, upon this racy and 
jovial Love-song, which redeems the close of the volume. 
It has the gaiety and abandon of John Fletcher's and 
Richard Brome's. We have never yet met it elsewhere. 
It was probably written about 1642. The reserved song 
in Part i., p. 153 (Supplement, p. 3), seems to be a vile 
parody on it, in the coarse fashion of those persons who 
disgraced the cause of the Cavaliers. The rank and file 
were often base, and their brutality is evidenced in the 
songs which we have been obliged to degrade to the Sup- 
plement. 

It was certainly popular before 1659, f° r we find it 
quoted as furnishing the tune to " A proper new ballad 
(25 verses) on the Old Parliament," beginning "Good 
Morrow, my neighbours all," with a varying burden : — 

Hei ho, my hony, 

My heart shall never rue, 
Four and twenty noiv for your Mony, 

And yet a hard penny tvorth too. 

(Rump, 1662 ii, 26.) 

The music is in Playford's English Dancing Master, 1686. 



368 Appendix. 

Page 116 [Supp. 14]. She lay up to, &fc. 

Five years earlier, in Wit and Drollery, 1656, p. 56; 
1661, p. 58. With the original, in M. D., C, p. 300, 
compare the similar disappointment, by Cleveland, "The 
Myrtle-Grove" {Poems, p. 160, edit. 1661.) 

Page 149 [253]. If that you ivill hear, Zsfc. 

This is the same, except a few variations, as " Will you 
please to hear a new ditty ?" in our Westminster- Drollery, 
167 1, i. 88; Appendix to ditto, pp. xxxvi-vii (compare 
the coarser verses, p. 368 in present volume, and " Upon 
the biting of Fleas," in Musarum Delicice, 1656; Reprint, 
p. 64.) 



[We here close our Notes to the " Extra Songs " of Merry 
Drollery, 1661. But we have still some Additional Notes, on 
what is common to the editions of 1661, 1670, and 1691 (as 
promised in M. D., C, p. 363).] 



MERRY 






MERRY 

DROLLERY, 

Complete. 

OR, 

A COLLECTION 

r Jovial POEMS, 
Of ) Merry SONGS. 

( Witty DROLLERIES, 

Intermixed with Pleasant Catches. 
The Firft Part. 

Collected by 
W.N. C.B. R.S. J.G. 

LOVERS of WIT 



LONDON, 

Printed for Simon Miller, at the Star, at 
the West End of St. Pauls, 1670. 

B B 



37i 
APPENDIX. Part 4. 



§ 2. ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE 

MERRY DROLLERY, COMPLEAT. 

(Common to all editions, 1661, '70, '91, and 1875 J 

"A pretty slight Drollery." 

{Henry IF., pt. 2. Act ii. Sc. 1.) 

Title-page to 1670 Edition. 

WE here give the title-page of the 1670 Edition 
of Merry Drollery, Compleat, Part 1st. As 
mentioned on our p. 231, the 1670 edition was re- 
issued as a new edition in 1691, but with no alteration 
except the fresh title-page, with its date and statement 
of William Miller's stock in trade. 

Of the four " Lovers of Wit," 1661, we believe we 
have unearthed one, viz. " R. S.," in Ralph Sleigh, 
who wrote a song beginning, "Cupid, Cupid, makes 
men stupid ; I'll no more of such boys' play ;" (Sport- 
ive Wit,) Jovial Drollery, 1656, p. 22. 



M. D., C. t p. 11 [13]. Verse 6. "Mahomet's 
pidgeon," that was taught to pick seeds from out his ear, 
so that it might be thought to whisper to him. The " mad 
fellow clad alwaies in yellow," i.e., in his military Buff- 
coat — "And somewhat his nose is blew, boys," certainly 

B B 2 



37 2 Appendix. 

alludes to Oliver Cromwell : His being " King and no 
King," to his refusing the Crown offered by the notables 
whom he had summoned in 1657. As the " New Peers," 
his sons Henry and Richard among them, insulted and 
contemned by the later and mixed Parliament of January 
20th, 1658, were "turned out" along with their foes the 
recalcitrant Commons, on Feb. 4th, we have the date of 
this ballad established closely. 



Page 29. Nonsense. Notv Gentlemen, if, &c. 

Two other " Messes of Nonsense " may be found in Re- 
creations for Ingenious Headpieces, 1645 (Reprint, Wit's 
Recreations, pp. 400, 401) ; beginning "When Neptune's 
blasts," and " Like to the tone of unspoke speeches." 
The latter we believe to have been written by Bishop 
Corbet. In Wit's Merriment (i.e. Sportive Wit), 1656, is 
the following : A FANCY:— 

J 1 7 Hen Py crust first began to reign, 
*r Cheese parings 'went to ivarre. 
Red Herrings lookt both blew and ivan, 

Green leeks and Puddings jarre. 
Blind Hugh 'went out to see 

T'wo Cripples run a race, 
The Ox fought 'with the Humble Bee, 
And clauu'd him by the face. 



Page 36, lines 21, 22. "Honest Dick;" and "L." 

These lines furnish a clue to the date of this ballad, (and 
its " Answer " quickly followed) : " Honest Dick" being 
Richard Cromwell, whose Protectorate lasted only eight 
months, beginning in September, 1658. "The name 
with an L — " refers to his unscrupulous rival Lambert; 
with his spasmodic attempts at supremacy, urged on by 
his own ambition and that of his wife (accustomed too 
long to rule Oliver himself, during a close intimacy, not 
without exciting scandal, while she insisted on displacing 
Lady Dysart). For an account of Lambert's twentv-one 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 373 

years of captivity, first at Guernsey and later at Ply- 
mouth, see Choice Notes on History, from N. and Q., 1858, 
pp. 155-163. Lambert played a selfish game, lost it, and 
needs no pity for having had to pay the stakes. But for 
" Honest Dick," "Tumble down Dick," who had warmly 
pleaded with his father to save the king's life in the fatal 
January of 1649, we keep a hearty liking. Carlyle stig- 
matizes him as " poor, idle, trivial," &c, but let that pass. 
Had Richard been crafty or cruel, like those who removed 
him from power, his reign might have been prolonged. 
But "what a wounded name" he would have then left 
behind, compared with his now stainless character : and, 
in any case, his ultimate fall was certain. 

Page 43, line 16th, "Call for a constable blurt" 

An allusion to Middleton's Comedy, " Blurt, Master 
Constable," 1602. 



Page 62, 368. Will you hear a strange thing. 

The important event here described took place April 20th, 
1653, and the ballad immediately followed. (Compare 
" Cheer up, kind country men," by S. S., " Rebellion 
hath broken up house," and " This Christmas time," in 
the Percy Soc. Pol. Bds., iii. 126; 180 Loyal Songs, 149, 
1694; Rump, ii. 52.) At this date the strife between the 
fag-end of the Rump and Oliver, who was supported by 
his council of officers, came to open violence. Fearing 
his increased power, it was proposed to strengthen the 
Parliamentarians by admitting a body of "neutrals," 
Presbyterians, to act in direct opposition against the 
army-leaders. With a pretence of dissolving themselves 
there would have ensued a virtual extension of rule. 
Anxious and lengthy meetings had been held by Crom- 
well's adherents at Whitehall, one notably on the 19th, 
and continued throughout the night. Despite a promise, 
or half promise, of delay made to him, the Rump was 
meantime hurrying onward the objectionable measure, 
clearly with intention of limiting his influence : among 

BB3 



374 



Appendix. 



the leaders being Sir Hy. Vane, Harry Marten, and Al- 
gernon Sidney. They knew it to be a struggle for life or 
death. From the beginning, this Long Parliament cher- 
ished the mistaken idea that they were everything su- 
preme : providence, strength, virtue, and wisdom, etc., 
etc. If mere empty talk could be all this, such represen- 
tative wind-bags might deserve some credit. Their doom 
was sealed ; not alone for their incompetence, but also for 
proved malignity, and the attempt to perpetuate their own 
mischief, destroying the only power that seemed able to 
bring order out of chaos. 

Cromwell received intelligence, from his adherents 
within the house, of the efforts being made to hurry the 
measure for settling the new representation, and then to 
dissolve for re-election. Major Harrison talked against 
time ; until Cromwell could arrive after breaking up the 
Whitehall meeting. Ingoldsby, as the second or third 
messenger, had shown to him the urgent need of action. 
Followed by Lambert and some half-dozen officers, the 
General took with him a party of soldiers, reached the 
house, and found himself not too soon. Surrounding the 
chamber, and guarding the doors, the troopers remained 
outside. Clad in plain black, unattended and resolute, 
Oliver entered, stood looking on his discomfitted foes, and 
then sat down, speaking to no one except " dusky tough 
St. John, whose abstruse fanaticisms, crabbed logics, and 
dark ambitions issue all, as was natural, in decided ava- 
rice " (Carlyle's Cromwell, Hi. 168, 1671 edit). Vane 
must have felt the peril, but held on unflinchingly, im- 
ploring the house to dispense with everything that might 
delay the measure, such as engrossing. The Speaker 
had risen at last to put the question, before the General 
started up, uncovered, and began his address. Some- 
thing of stately commendation for past work he gave 
them. Perhaps at first his words were uttered solely to 
obtain a momentary pause, the whilst he gathered up his 
strength, and measured all the chances, before he broke 
with them for ever. Soon the tone changed into that of 
anger and contempt. He heaped reproaches on them : 
Ludlow says : " He spoke with so much passion and dis- 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 375 

composure of mind, as if he had been distracted." "Your 
time is come !" he told them : " The Lord has done with 
you. He has chosen other instruments for the carrying 
on his work, that are more worthy." 

Vane, Marten, and Sir Peter Wentworth tried to inter- 
rupt him, but it was almost beyond their power. Went- 
worth could but irritate him by indignant censure. He 
crushed his hat on, sprang from his place, shouting that 
he would put an end to their prating, and, while he strode 
noisily along the room, railed at them to their face, not 
naming them, but with gestures giving point to his in- 
vectives. He told them to begone *. " I say you are no 
Parliament ! I'll put an end to your sitting. Begone ! 
Give way to honester men." A stamp of his foot fol- 
lowed, as a signal; the door flies open, " five or six files 
of musqueteers" are seen with weapons ready. Resist- 
ance (so prompt, with less provocation, in 1642) is felt to 
be useless, and, except mere feminine scolding, none is 
attempted. Not one dares to struggle. Afraid of vio- 
lence, their swords hang idly at their side. As they pass 
out in turn, they meet the scathing of Oliver's rebuke. 
His control of himself is gone. Their crimes are not for- 
gotten. He denounces Challoner as a drunkard, Went- 
worth for his adultery, Alderman Allen for his embezzle- 
ment of public military money, and Bulstrode Whitelock 
of injustice. Harry Marten is asked whether a whore- 
master is fit to sit and govern. Vane is unable to resist 
a feeble protest, availing nothing — " This is not honest : 
Yea ! it is against morality and honesty." In the ab- 
sence of such crimes or flagrant sins of his companions, as 
his own frozen nature made him incapable of committing, 
there are remembered against him his interminable 
harangues, his hair-splitting, his self-sufficiency; and all 
that early deliberate treachery in ransacking his father's 
papers, which he employed to cause the death of Straf- 
ford. To all posterity recorded, came the ejaculation of 
Cromwell : " Sir Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane — the 
Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane !" And, excepting 
a few dissentient voices, the said posterity echoes the 
words approvingly. The "bauble" mace had been 

B B 4 



376 Appendix. 

borne off ignominiously, the documents were seized, in- 
cluding that of the unpassed measure, the room was 
cleared, the doors were locked, and all was over. The 
Long Parliament thus fell, unlamented 

Page 66. Vie sing you a Sonnet. 

Written and published in 1659; as we see by the refer- 
ences to "Dick {Oliver's Heir) that pitiful slow-thing, 
Who was once invested with purple clothing," — his re- 
tirement being in April, 1659. Bradshaw, the bitter 
Regicide (whose harsh vindictiveness to Charles I. during 
the trial has left his memory exceptionally hateful), died 
22nd November, 1659. Hewson the Cobbler was one of 
Oliver's new peers, summoned in January, 1658. 

Pages 69, 368. Be not thou so foolish nice. 

The music to this, by Dr. John Wilson, is in his Chearfull 
Ay res, 1659-60, p. 126. 

Pages 70, 369. Aske me no more. 

Gule is misprint for " Goal," and refers to the Bishops 
who, having been molested and hindered from attending 
to vote among the peers, were, on 30th December, 1642, 
committed to the Tower for publishing their protest against 
Acts passed during their unwilling absence. Finch, Lord 
Keeper ; who, to save his life, fled beyond sea, and did 
not return until after the Restoration. 

Pages 72, 369. A Sessions ivas held, &c. 

To avoid a too-long interruption, our Additional Note to 
the "Sessions of the Poets" is slightly displaced from 
here, and follows later as Section Third. 

Pages 87, 369. Some Christian people all, ®c. 

We have traced this burlesque narrative of the Fire on 
London Bridge ten years earlier than Merry Drollery, 
1661, p. 81. It appeared (probably for the first time in 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 377 

print) on April 28th, 1651, at the end of a volume of fa- 
cetice, entitled The Loves of Hero and Leander (in the 1677 
edition, following Ovid de Arte Amandi, it is on p. 142) 
The event referred to, we suspect, was a destructive fire 
which broke out on London Bridge, 13th Feb. 1632-3. 
It is thus described : — " At the latter end of the year 
1632, viz., on the 13th Feb., between eleven and twelve 
at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a 
needle-maker, near St. Magnus Church, at the north 
end of the bridge, by the carelessness of a maid-servant, 
setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, 
a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the build- 
ings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the 
north end of the bridge, to the first vacancy on both 
sides, containing forty-two houses ; ivater being then very 
scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over. Beneath, 
in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained burning and 
glowing a whole week after. After which fire, the north 
end of the bridge lay unbuilt for many years ; only deal 
boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people's 
falling into the Thames, many of which deals were, by 
high winds, blown down, which made it very dangerous 
in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles 
hung upon all the cross-beams that held the pales to- 
gether." (Tho. Allen's Hist, and Antiq. of London, vol. 
ii. p. 468, 1828.) Details and list of houses burnt are given 
(as in Gent. Mag. Nov. 1824), from the MS. Record 
of the Mercies of God; or, a Thankfull Remembrance, 
1618-1635 (since printed), kept by the Puritan Nehemiah 
Wallington, citizen and turner, of London, a friend of 
Prynn and Bastwick He gives the date as Monday, nth 
February, 1633. Our ballad mentions the river being 
frozen over, and " all on the tenth of January;" but no- 
thing is more common than a traditional blunder of the 
month, so long as the rhythm is kept. (Compare Choyce 
Drollery, p. 78, and Appendix p. 297). 

Another Fire-ballad (in addition to the coarse squib in 
present vol., pp. 33-7,) is "Zeal over-heated;" telling of 
a fire at Oxford, 1642; tune, Chivey Chace ; and be- 
ginning, " Attend, you brethren every one." It is not 



378 Appendix. 

improbably by Thomas Weaver, being in his Love and 
Drollery, 1654, p. 21. 

Page 92, 370. Cast your caps and cares away. 

Of this song, from Beaumont and Fletcher's " Beggar's 
Bush," bef. 1625, the music set by Dr. John Wilson is 
in his Cheerfull Ayres, 1659-60, p. 22. 

Pages 97, 371. Come, let us drink. 

" Mahomet's Pigeon," a frequent allusion : compare 
M. D. C, pp. 11, 192; and present appendix, p. 356. 

Pages 100, 108 (App.) 371. Satires on Gondibert. 

See Additional Note in this vol. § 3, post, for a few 
words on D'Avenant. Since printing M. D. C, we have 
been enabled (thanks to W. F. Fowle, Esq., possessor of 
to consult the very rare Second Satire, 1655, mentioned 
on p. 371. It is entitled, "The Incomparable Poem 
Gondibert Vindicated from the Wit- Combats of Four 
EsauiRES, Clinias, Dametas, Sancho, and Jack Pud- 
ding." [With this three-fold motto :— ] 

Xoreet koX SlolS to> doiSa). 
Vatum quoque gratia rara est. 

Anglice, 
One Wit-Brother \\ Envies another. 

Printed in the year 1655." It begins on p. 3, with a 
poetical address to Sir Willm. Davenant, asking pardon 
beforehand in case his "yet-unhurt Reputation" should 
suffer more through the champion than from the attack 
made by the four " Cyclops, or Wit- Centaurs," two of 
whom he unhesitatingly names as " Denham and Jack 
Donne," or "Jack Straw." But even thus early we 
notice the sarcasm against D'Avenant himself : when in 
reference to the never-forgotten " flaws " in his face, the 
Defender writes : — 

Will sheiv thy face (be't what it will), 
We' I push 'urn yet a quill for quill. 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 379 

The third poem, p. 8, again to the Poet, mocks him as 
well as his assailants' lines (our M. D. C, p. 108) with 
twenty triplets : — 

After so many poorer scraps 

Of Playes which nere had the mishaps 

To passe the stage without their claps, &c. 

Next comes a poem " Upon the continuation of Gondi- 
bert," " Ovid to Patmos pris'ner sent." (Later, we ex- 
tract the chief lines for the "Sessions" Add. Note.) 
He is told, 

Wash thee in Avon, if thou flie. 

My wary Davenant so high, 

Yet Hypernaso now you shall 

Ore fly this Goose so Capital I. (p. 14.) 

After five others, came one Upon the Author, beginning, 

Daphne, secure of the buff, 

Prethee laugh, 
Yet at these four and their riff raff 2 

Who can hold 

When so bold ? 
And the trim wit of Coopers green hill, . . ■ 

Ending thus : — 

Denham, thou' It be shrewdly shent 

To invent 
Such Dravulery for merriment, &c. . . . 
A Drawing Donne out of the mire. 

A burlesque of Gondibert on same p. 18, as " Canto the 
Second, or rather Cento the first;" begins "All in the 
Land of Bembo and of Bubb." One stanza partly 
anticipates Sam. Butler : — 

The Sun ivas sunk into the watery lap 

Of her commands the waves, and weary there, 

Of his long journey, took a pleasing nap 
To ease his each daies travels all the year. 

P. 23 gives "To Daphne on his incomparable (and by the 
Critick incomprehended) Poem, Gondibert" this conso- 



380 Appendix. 

lation : " Chear up, dear friend, a Laureat thou must 
be/' &c. Hobbes comes in for notice, on p. 24, and 
Denham with his Cooper's Hill has another slap. The 
final poem, on p. 27, is " Upon the Author's writing his 
name, as in the Title of his Booke, D'Avenant :" — 

" Your Wits have further than you rode, 
You needed not to have gone abroad. 

D'avenant from Avon comes, 

Rivers are still the Muses Rooms. 
Dort, knoivs our name, no more Durt on*t ; 
An't be but for that D'avenant. 

2. 
And when such people are restored 
(A thing beloved by none that ivhor'd) 

My noches then may not appeare, 

The gift of healing ivill be near. (clowns) 

Meane ivhile lie seeke some Panax (salve of 
Shall heal the vuanton Issues and crackt Crowns. 

I will conclnde, Farewell Wit Squirty Fegos 

And drolling gasmen Wal-Den-De-Donne-Dego. 
(Finis.)" 

Here, finally, are Waller, Denham, [Bro]de[rick], and 
Donne clearly indicated. They receive harder measure, 
on the whole, than D'avenant himself; so that the 
Second Volume of Satires, 1655, 1S neither by the author 
of " Gondibert," nor by those who penned the " Certain 
Verses " of 1653. Q. E. D. 



Pages 101, 372. I'll tell thee, Dick, &c. 

As already mentioned, the popularity of Suckling's 
"Ballad on a Wedding" (probably written in 1642) 
caused innumerable imitations. Some of these we have 
indicated. In Folly in Print, 1667, is another, " On a 
Friend's Wedding," to the same tune, beginning, " Now 
Tom, if Suckling were alive, And knew who Harry were 
to wive." In D'Urfey's Fills to Purge Melancholy, 
1699, p. 81 : ed. 1 7 19, iii, 65, is a different " New Ballad 



mm 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 381 

upon a Wedding" [at Lambeth], with the music, to 
same tune and model, beginning, " The sleeping Thames 
one morn I cross'd, By two contending Charons tost." 
Like Cleveland's poem, as an imitation it possesses 
merit, each having some good verses. 

Pages in, 112. The Proctors are ttuo. 

Among the references herein to Cambridge Taverns is 
one (3rd verse) to the Myter : part of which fell down 
before 1635, and was celebrated in verse by that " dar- 
ling of the Muses," Thomas Randolph. His lines be- 
gin " Lament, lament, ye scholars all ! " He mentions 
other Taverns and the Mitre-landlord, Sam : — 

Let the Rose ivith the Falcon moult, 

While Sam enjoys his ivishes ; 
The Dolphin, too, must cast her crown : 

Wine ivas not made for fishes. 

Pages 115, 374. 'Tis not the silver, &c. 

The mention, on pp. 116, of "our bold Army " turning 
out the "black Synod," refers less probably to Colonel 
" Pride's Purge " of the Presbyterians, on 6th December, 
1648, than to the events of April 20, 1653; and helps to 
fix the date to the same year. In 6th verse the blanks 
are to be thus filled, "Arms of the Rump or the King ; " 
" C. R., or O. P. ;" the joke of "the breeches" being a 
supposed misunderstanding of the Commonwealth- Arms 
on current coin (viz., the joined shields of England and 
Ireland) for the impression made by Noll's posteriors. 
Compare " Saw you the States-Money," in Rump Coll., 
i. 289. On one side they marked " God with us ! " 

" Common-wealth on the other, by tvhich ive may guess 
God and the States tuere not both of a side" 

Pages 121, 375. Come, let's purge our brains. 

This song is almost certainly by Thomas Jordan, the 
City-Poet. With many differences he reprints it later 



382 Appendix. 

in his London in Luster, as sung at the Banquet given 
by the Drapers Company, October 29th, 1679; where it 
is entitled " The Coronation of Canary," and thus be- 
gins (in place of our first verse) : — 

T~\ Rink your vuine aivay, 

*-* ' Tis my Lord Mayor's day, 

Let our Cups and Cash be free. 
Beer and Ale are both || But the sons of froth, 

Let us then in ivine agree. 
To taste a Quart || Of every sort, 

The thinner and the thicker j 
That spight of Chance \\ We may advance. 

The Nobler and the Quicker. 

Who shall by Vote of every Throat 
Be croivn' 'd the King of Liquor. 

2. 
Muscadel Avant, Bloody Alicant, 

Shall have no free vote of mine 2 
Claret is a Prince, And he did long since 

In the Royal order shine. 
His face, &c, (as in M. D. C. p. 112.) 

In sixth verse, " If a Cooper tve With a red nose see," re- 
fers to Oliver Cromwell ; and proves it to have been 
written before September, 1658. 



Pages 125, 315. Lay by, &c, Law lies a-bleeding. 

The date of this ballad seems to have been 1656, rather 
than 1658. The despotism of the sword here so power- 
fully described, was under those persons who are on 
p. 254 of M. D. C. designated " Oliver's myrmidons," 
meaning, probably, chiefly the major-generals of the 
military districts, into which the country was divided 
after Penruddock's downfall in 1655. They were Des- 
borough, Whalley, Goffe, Fleetwood, " downright " 
Skippon, Kelsey, Butler, Worseley, and Berry ; to these 
ten were added Barkstead. Compare Hallam's account : 
— " These were eleven in number, men bitterly hostile to 
the royalist party, and insolent to all civil authority. 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 383 

They were employed to secure the payment of a tax of 
ten per cent., imposed by Cromwell's arbitrary will on 
those who had ever sided with the King during the late 
wars, where their estates exceeded £100 per annum. 
The major-generals, in their correspondence printed 
among Thurloe's papers, display a rapacity and oppres- 
sion greater than their master's. They complain that 
the number of those exempted is too great; they press 
for harsher measures ; they incline to the unfavourable 
construction in every doubtful case; they dwell on the 
growth of malignancy and the general disaffection. It 
was not indeed likely to be mitigated by this unparalleled 
tyranny. All illusion was now gone as to the pretended 
benefits of the civil war. It had ended in a despotism, 
compared to which all the illegal practices of former 
kings, all that had cost Charles his life and crown, 
appeared as dust in the balance. For what was Ship- 
money, a general burthen, by the side of the present 
decimation of a single class, whose offence had long been 
expiated by a composition and effaced by an act of 
indemnity ? or were the excessive punishments of the 
Star Chamber so odious as the capital executions in- 
flicted without trial by peers, whenever it suited the 
usurper to erect his high court of justice [by which Gerard 
and Vowel in 1654, Slingsby and Dr. Hewit in 1658 fell]? 
A sense of present evils not only excited a burning desire 
to live again under the ancient monarchy, but obliterated, 
especially in the new generation, that had no distinct 
remembrance of them, the apprehension of its former 
abuses." (Constitutional Hist. England, cap. x. vol. ii. 
p. 252, edit. 1872.) This from a writer unprejudiced and 
discriminating. 



Pages 131, 376. /'// tell you a story. 

Tower hill and Tyburn. The date of this ferocious 
ballad is not likely to have been long before the execution 
of the regicides Harrison, Hacker, Cook, and Hew 
Peters, in October, 1660; some on the 13th, others on 
the 1 6th. Probably, shortly before the trial of Harry 



384 Appendix. 

Marten, on the 10th of the same month. The second 
verse indicates a considerable lapse of time since Monk's 
arrival and the downfall of the Rump (burnt in effigy, 
Febr. 11, 1659-60); so we may be certain that it was 
written late, about September, if not actually at begin- 
ning of October. 

Sir Robert Tichbourne, Commissioner for sale of 
State-lands, Alderman, Regulator of Customs, and Lord 
Mayor in 1658, was named in the King's Proclamation, 
6th June, 1660, as one of those who had fled, and who 
were summoned to appear within fourteen days, on 
penalty of being exempted from any pardon. His name 
occurs again, among the exceptions to the Act of Indem- 
nity ; along with those of Thos. Harrison, Hy. Marten, 
John Hewson, Jn. Cook, Hew Peters, Francis Hacker, 
and other forty-five. Nineteen of these fify-one surren- 
dered themselves : Tichbourne and Marten among them. 
None of them were executed ; although Scoop was, who 
also had yielded. The trial of the regicides commenced 
on 9th October, at Hick's Hall, Clerkenwell. 

Hugh Peters suffered, along with John Cook (the 
Counsel against Charles I. ) " that read the King's 
charge," on the 16th October,. He was depressed in 
spirits at the last, but there was dignity in his reply to 
one who insulted him in passing — " Friend, you do not 
well to trample on a dying man ; " and his sending a 
token to his daughter awakens pity. Physically he had 
failed in courage, and no wonder, to face all that was 
arrayed to terrify him : or he might have justified antici- 
pations and " made a pulpit of the place." His last 
sermon at Newgate is said to have been <e incoherent." 

Harry Marten's private life is so generally declared 
to have been licentious (dozens of ballads refering to his 
" harem," " Marten's girl that was neither sweet nor 
sound," " Marten, back and leave your wench," &c), 
and his old friend Cromwell when become a foe openly 
taxing him as a " whoremaster," that it is better for us 
to think of him with reference to his unswerving faithful- 
ness in Republican opinions; his gay spirit (more resem- 
bling the reckless indifference of Cavaliers than his own 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 385 

associates can have esteemed befitting) ; his successful 
exertions on many occasions to save the shedding of 
blood; and his gallant bearing in the final hours of trial. 
The living death to which he was condemned, of his 
twenty years imprisonment at Chepstow Castle, has been 
recorded (mistakenly as thirty} by that devoted student 
Robert Southey, clarum et venerabilem nomen ! in a 
poem which can never pass into oblivion, although cleverly 
mocked by Canning in the Anti-Jacobin, Nov. 20, 1797 : — 

For twenty years secluded from mankind 

Here Marten lingered. Often have these walls 

Echo'd his footsteps, as with even tread 

He paced around his prison ; not to him 

Did Nature's fair varieties exist : 

He never saw the sun's delightful beams 

Save when through yon high bars it pour'd a sad 

And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime? 

He had rebelled against his King, and sat 

In judgment on him : isfc. 

John Forster has written his memoir, and, in one of his 
best moments, Wallis painted him. Here are his own last 
words, sad yet firm, the old humour still apparent, if 
only in the choice of verse, it being the anagram of his 
name : — 

IT ERE, or elsewhere (all's one to you — to me !) 
*-• ■• Earth, air, or water, gripes my ghostless dust, 
None knowing when brave fire shall set it free. 
Reader, if you an oft-tried rule will trust, 
You'll gladly do and suffer what you must. 

My life was worn with serving you and you, 
And death is my reward, and welcome too : 
Revengi destroying but itself. While I 
To biris of prey leave my old cage and fly. 
Exar pies preach to th* eye — care, then, mine says, 
Not how you end, but how you spend your days. 

(Athente Oxonienses, iii. 1243.) 

As to Thomas Harrison, fifth-monarchy enthusiast, firm 
to the end in his adversity, he who had been ruthless in 

c c 



386 



Appendix. 



prosperity, we have already briefly referred to his closing 
hours in our Introduction to Merry Drollery, Compleat, 
p. xxix. 

John Hewson, Cobbler and Colonel, who had sat in 
the illegal mockery of Judgment on King Charles, was 
for the after years ridiculed by ballad-singers as a one- 
eyed spoiler of good leather. He escaped the doom of 
Tyburn by flight to Amsterdam, where he died in 1662. 
In default of his person, his picture was hung on a gib- 
bet in Cheapside, 25th January, 1660-61. (See Pepys' 
Diary of that date.) His appearance was not undignified. 
One ballad specially devoted to him, at his flight, is " A 
Hymne to the Gentle Craft ; or, Heivson's Lamenta- 
tion : — 

T ISTEN a while to what I shall say 
•*-' Of a blind cobbler that's gone astray 
Out of the Parliament's High-way, 

Good people, pity the blind ! 

[verse 17.] 
And now he has gone to the Lord knows whether, 
He and this winter go together, 
If he be caught he will lose his leather, 

Good people, pity the blind ! 

(Rump, Coll. 1662 edit., ii. 15 1-4.) 

Verse 14. Dr. John Hewit with Sir Harry Slingsby had 
been executed for conspiracy against Cromwell, 8th June, 
1658. The Earl of Strafford's death was May 12th, 1641 ; 
and that of Laud, January 10th, 1644. 

Verse 15. Dun was the name of the Hangman at this 
time, frequently mentioned in the Rump ballads. Jack 
Ketch was his successor : Gregory had been Hangman 
in 1652. 

Pages 134, 376. /'// go no more to the Old Exchange. 

The first Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham's 
Bourse, was opened by Queen Elizabeth, January 23rd, 
1570, and destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The 
second was commenced on May 6th, 1667, and burnt on 
January 10th, 1838. The present building, the third, 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 387 

was opened by Queen Victoria Oct., 28th, 1844. The 
" Old Exchange," often referred to in ballads, was 
Gresham's. But the " New Exchange " was one, erected 
where the stables of Durham House in the Strand had 
stood : opened April nth, 1609, and removed in 1737. 
King James I. had named it "Britain's Bourse." Built 
on the model of the established Royal Exchange, it had 
" cellars, a walk, and a row of shops, filled with milliners, 
seamstresses, and those of similar occupations ; and was 
a place of fashionable resort. What, however, was in- 
tended to rival the Royal Exchange, dwindled into frivolity 
and ruin, and the site is at present [1829] occupied by a 
range of handsome houses facing the Strand " (T. Allen's 
Hist, and Antiq. of London, iv. 254). In the ballad it is 
sung of as " Haberdashers' Hall." Cp. Roxb. Coll., ii., 
230. 



Pages 152, 378. There is a certain, ®c. 

This is an imperfect version of " A Woman's Birth," 
merely the beginning, four stanzas. The whole fifteen 
(eleven following ours) are reprinted by Wm. Chappell, 
in the Ballad Society's Roxburghe Bds., iii. 94, 1875, from 
a broadside in Roxb. Coll., i. 466, originally printed for 
Francis Grove [1620-55]. 2nd verse reads: — Her hus- 
band Hymen ; 4th. Wandring eye ; insatiate. The gifts 
of Juno, Flora, and Diana follow ; with woman's employ- 
ment of them. 

Page 172. Blind Fortune, if thou, &c. 

We find this in MS. Harleian, No. 6396, fol. 13. Also 
two printed copies, in Parnassus Biceps, 1656, 124; and 
in Sportive Wit, same year, p. 39. We gained the cor- 
rections, which we inserted as marginalia, from the MS.; 
" Ceres in hir Garland " having been corrupted into 
" Cealus in his." " Aglaura," Sir John Suckling's play, 
(printed originally in 4to. 1639, with a broad margin of 
blank, on which the wits made merry with epigrammes, 
" By this wide margent," &c), appeared on April 18th, 

C C 2 



388 Appendix* 

1638, and is here referred to. Probably the date of the 
poem is nearly as early. On p. 175 the " Pilgrimage up 
Holbom Hill" refers to a journey from Newgate to 
Tyburn. (See p. 365). 

Pages 180, 379. Heard you not lately of a man. 

The Mad-Man's Morrice; written by Humfrey Crouch : 
For the second part of the broad-sheet version we must 
refer readers to vol. ii. page 153, of the Ballad Society's 
reprint of the Roxburghe Ballads (now happily arrived at 
completion of the first massive folio vol. of Major Pear- 
son's original pair ; the bulky third and slim fourth vols, 
being afterwards added). We promised to give it, and 
gladly would have done so, if we had space : for it is a 
trustworthy picture of a Bedlamite's sufferings, under the 
harsh treatment of former days. Date about 1635-42. 

To our enumeration of mad songs ( Westm. Droll. App. 
p. 9) we may add Thomas Jordan's " I am the woefullest 
madman." 

M. D., C, p. 198, lines 22, 23. True Hearts. 

" I'll drink to thee a brace of quarts || Whose Anagram 
is called True Hearts." The Anagram of True Hearts 
gives us " Stuart here ! " which, like drinking " to the 
King — over the ivater I " in later days by the Jacobites, 
would be well understood by suspected cavaliers. 

In March 1659-60 appeared the anagram " Charles 
Stuart: Arts Chast Rule. Later: Awld fool, Rob the 
Jews' Shop. 

Pages 255, 287. When I do travel in the night. 

Like " How happy 's the prisoner," Ibid. p. 107, we trace 
this so early as 1656. It is in Sportive Wit, p. 12, as 
" When I goto revel in the night," The Drunkard's Song. 

Pages 153 (and Introduction, ix). The best of Poets, &c. 
The Bow Goose. We have found this, (15 verses of 



%■ 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 389 

our 18,) five years earlier, in Sportive Wit, 1656, p. 35. It 
there begins, " The best of Poets write of Hogs, And of 
Ulysses barking Dogs ; Others of Sparrows, Flies, and 
Hogs." Our text, though later, seems to be the better, 
and has three more verses : " Frogs," in connection with 
-' the Best of Poets," referring to Homer and to Batrach- 
omyomachia j supposed to be his, and translated by 
George Chapman, about 1623 (of whom A. C. Swinburne 
has recently written so glowing a eulogium, coupling with 
it the noblest praise of Marlowe). 

M. D., C, pp. 166, 376. Noiv, thanks to, &?c. 

Of course, the words displayed by dashes are Crown, 
Bishop, King. To this same tune are later songs (1659- 
60) in the Rump, ii. 193 — 200, "What a reprobate crew 
is here," &c. Wilkins prints an inferior version of 7th 
line in 3rd verse, as " Take Prynne and his clubs, or Say 
and his tubs," referring to William, Viscount " Say and 
Seal." Ours reads "club, or Smec and his tub," the 
allusion being to Smectymnuus, a name compounded, like 
the word Cabal in Charles II. 's time, of the initials of 
five personal names : Ste. Marshall, Edm. Calamy, 
Thos. Young, Matth. Newcomen, and Willm. Spurstow; 
all preachers, who united in a book against Episcopacy 
and the Liturgy. Milton, in 1641 published his Animad- 
versions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectym- 
nuus-, and in 1642, An Apology for Smectymnuus. John 
Cleveland devotes a poem to " The Club Divines," be- 
ginning "Smectymnuus ! the Goblin makes me start." 
(Poems, p. 38, 1661 ; also in the Rump Coll., i. 57.) 

Pages 200, 382. A Story strange, ®c. 

Correction : — Instead of the words " Choyce Drollery, 
p. 31," in first line of note ( M. D., C, p. 382), read 
" Jovial Drollery (i.e., Sportive Wit), p. 59." The same 
date, viz. 1656. 

Pages 2 10- 1 1, 384. "To Virginia for Planters." 

The reference here is to the proposed expedition of dis- 

CC3 



390 Appendix. 

heartened Cavaliers (among whom was Wm. D'Avenant) 
from France and England to the Virginian plantations. 
It was defeated in 1650,, the vessels having been inter- 
cepted in the channel by the Commonwealth's fleet. By 
the way, the infamous sale into slavery of the royalist 
prisoners during the war in previous years by the intole- 
rant Parliament, deserves the sternest reprobation. 

Page 226. "Sea-coal Lane" 

An appropriate dower, as Sea-coal Lane in the Old 
Bailey bore a similar evil repute to Turnball Street, 
Drury Lane, and Kent Street, for the bona-roba tribe : as 
"the suburbs " always did. 



Pages 232, 390. Hozv poor is his spirit. 

Written when Oliver rejected the title of King, 8th May, 
1657. (See next note, on p. 254.) 

Pages 254, 393. Oliver, Oliver, take up thy Crotun. 

After Cromwell's designating the Battle of Worcester, 
3rd September, 1651, his "crowning victory" many of 
his more uncompromising Republicans kept a stealthy 
eye upon him. Our ballad evidently refers itself to the 
date of the " purified " Parliament's " Petition and 
Advice," March 26, 1656, when Cromwell hesitated before 
accepting or declining the offered title of King; thinking 
(mistakenly, as we deem probable) that his position would 
become more unsafe, from the jealousy and prejudices of 
the army, than if he seemed contented with the name of 
Protector to the Commonwealth, while holding the actual 
power of sovereignty. His refusal was in April, 1657. 
Hallam thinks it was not until after Worcester fight that 
" he began to fix his thoughts, if not on the dignity of 
royalty, yet on an equivalent right of command. Two 
remarkable conversations, in which Whitelock bore a 
part, seem to place beyond controversy the nature of his 
designs. About the end of 165 1, Whitelock himself, 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 391 

St. John, Widdrington, Lenthall, Harrison, Desborough, 
Fleetwood, and Whalley met Cromwell, at his own 
request to consider the settlement of the nation," &c. 
(Constit. Hist. England, cap. x. p. 237, edit. 1872.) 
"Twelve months after this time in a more confidential 
discourse with Whitelock alone, the general took occasion 
to complain both of the chief officers of the army and of 
the parliament," &c. {Ibid. p. 238). The conference not 
being satisfactory to Cromwell, on each occasion ended 
abruptly ; and Whitelock ( if we may trust his own 
account, which perhaps is asking too much ) was little 
consulted afterwards. When they had conferred the 
title of Lord Protector, the right of appointing his suc- 
cessor was added on 22nd May. 



Pages 255, 393. When I do travel, ®c. 

" With upsie freeze I line my head," of our text, is in the 
play " Cromwell's Coronation " printed " With tipsy 
frenzie." But we often find the other phrase ; some- 
times, as in the ballad of " The Good Fellow's Best Be- 
loved " (i.e. strong drink) varied thus, "With good ipse 
he," (about 1633). See Bd. Soc. Roxb. Bds. iii. 248, 
where is W. Chappell's note, quoting Nares : — " It has 
been said that op-zee, in Dutch, means ' over sea/ which 
comes near to another English phrase for drunkenness, 
being f half-seas over.' But op-zyn-fries means, ' in the 
Dutch fashion,' or a la mode de Frise, which perhaps is 
the best interpretation of the phrase." In Massinger and 
Dekker's " Virgin Martyr," 1622, Act ii. sc. 1, we find 
the vile Spungius saying, " Bacchus, the God of brewed 
wine and sugar, grand patron of rob-pots, upsie freesie 
tipplers, and super-naculum takers," &c. Probably 
Badham's conjecture is right, and in Hamlet, i. 4, we 
should read not " up-spring," but 

" Keeps ivassail, and the sivaggering upsy freeze." 

(Cambr. Essays, 1656; Cambr. Shakesp. viii. 30). T. 
Caldecott had so early as 1620 (in Spec, neiv edit. 
Shakesp. Hamlet) anticipated the guess, but not boldly. 

c c 4 



392 Appendix. 

He brings forward from T. Lodge's Wit's Miserie, 4to, 
1596, p. 20, " Dance, leap, sing, drink, upsefrize." And 
again : — 

For Upsefreeze he drunke from four to nine, 
So as each sense ivas steeped ivell in wine : 
Yet still he kept his rouse, till he in fine 
Grew extreame sicke ivith hugging Bacchus shrine. 

{The Shrift.] 

A new Spring shadowed in sundrie pithie Poems by 
Musophilus, 4to. 1619, signat. I. b., where " Upsefreese" 
is the name of the frier. Like "Wassael" and " Trin- 
kael," the phrase upsie-friese, or vrijster, seems to have 
been used as a toast, perhaps for "To your sweetheart." 

Pages 259, 354. If none be offended. 

The exact date of this ballad's publication was 31st De- 
cember, 1659 : * n Thomason Collection, Numero xxii., 
folio, Brit. Mus. 



Page 270. Pray ivhy should any, &c. 

Probably written in 1659-60, when Monk was bridling 
the Commons. " Cooks" alludes to John Cook, the 
Solicitor for the Commonwealth, who at the trial of 
Charles 1st. exhibited the charge of high treason. After 
the Restoration, Cook was executed along with Hugh 
Peters, 16th Oct., 1660, at Charing Cross. 



Pages 283 (line 22), 395. / have the finest Nonperel. 

" Hyrens " (as earlier printed in Wit and Drollery, 1656, 
p. 26), instead of " Syrens " of our text, is probably 
correct. Ancient Pistol twice asks " Have we not Hirens 
here ? " (Henry IV., Part 2nd, Act ii. sc. 4). George 
Peele had a play, now lost, on " The Turkish Mahomet 
and Hiren the fair Greek " [1594?] In the Spiritual 
Navigator, 1 615, we learn, is a passage, "There be 
Syrens in the sea of the world. Syrens? Hirens, as 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 393 

they are now called. What a number of these syrens, 
hirens, cockatrices, courteghians — in plain English, har- 
lots — swimme amongst us ! " 

Page 287. Title, " Oxford Jeasts." 

An unfortunate misprint crept in, detected too late : for 
"Feasts" read properly "Jeasts:" the old fashioned 
initial J being barred across like F. 

Page 293, line 11. " Heresie in hops." 

This must have been an established jest. (Compare In- 
trod. to M. D. C, pp. xxxi-ii. and T. Randolph's " Fall 
of the Mitre Tavern," Cambridge, before 1635, 

The zealous students of that place 
Change of religion bear : 
That this mischance may soon bring in \A heresy of beer" 

Page 295, line 24. " A hundred horse." 

" He that gave the King a hundred horse," refers, no 
doubt, to Sir John Suckling and his loyal service in 1642. 
See introduction to M. D., C, pp. xix. xx. The Answer 
to " I tell thee, Jack, thou gavest the King," there men- 
tioned, and probably referring to Sir John Mennis, a 
carping rival although a Cavalier, has a smack of Cleve- 
land about it (it certainly is not Suckling's) : — 

Tell thee, fool, ivho ere thou be, 
That made this fine sing-song of me, 
Thou art a riming sot : 
These very lines do thee betray, 
This barren ivit makes all men say 
9 Tivas some rebellious Scot. 

But it's no ivonder if you sing 
Such songs of me, ivho am no King, 

When every bleiv-cap swears 
Hee'l not obey King James his Barn, 
That huggs a Bishop under' s Arme, 

And hangs them in his ears. 



I 



394 Appendix. 

Had I been of your Covenant, 

You'd call me th' son of John of Gaunt, 

And give me t great renown ; 
But noiv I am John \_f~\or the King, 
You say I am but poor Suckling, 

And thus you cry me down. 

Well, it's no matter what you say 
Of me or mine that run away ; 

I hold it no good fashion 
A Loyal subjects blood to spill, 
When ive have knaves enough to kill 

By force of Proclamation. 

Commend me unto Lesley stout, 
And his Pedlers him about, 

Tell them without remorse [p. 15 1.] 

That I will plunder all their packs 
Which they have got with their stoln knick knacks, 

With these my hundred horse. 

This holy War, this zealous firke 
Against the Bishops and the Kirk 

Is a pretended bravery j 
Religion, all the world can tell, 
Amongst Highlanders nere did dwell, 

Its but to cloak your knavery. 

Such desperate Gamesters as you be, 
I cannot blame for tutoring me, 

Since all you have is down, 
And every Boor forsakes his Plow, 
And swears that he' I turn Gamester now 

To venture for a Crown. 

(Le Prince d> Amour, 1660, pp. 150, 151.) 



Pages 296, 398 (Cp. this vol. p. 149, line 8). Noiv that 

the Spring. 

This is by Willm. Browne, author of "Britannia's 
Pastorals." The date is probably about fifteen years 
before 1645. It is one among the " Odes, Songs, and 



Merry Drollery, 1970. 395 

Sonnets of Wm. Browne," in the Lansdowne MS. 777, 
fol. 4 reverso and 5, with extra verses not used in the 
Catch. 

A Rounds. [1st verse sung by] All. 

"^T Oiv that the Spring hath fill' 'd our veynes 

-L ^ With kinde and actiue fire, 

And made green Liu' ryes for the playnes, 

and euery grove a Quire, 
Sing ive a Song of merry glee 

and Bacchus^// the boivle : 
I. Then heres to thee ; 2. And thou to mee 

and euery thirsty soule. 

Nor Care nor Sorroiv ere pay' d debt 

nor never shall doe myne ; 
I haue no Cradle goeing yet, 

[?2.] nor I, by this good vuyne. 
No ivyfe at home to send for me, 

noe hoggs are in my grounde, 
Noe suit at Laiv to pay a fee, 

Then round, old Jockey, round. 

All. 
Sheare sheepe that haue them, cry ive still, 
But see that noe man scape 
To drink of the Sherry 
That makes us so merry 
and plumpe as the lusty Grape. 

(Lansdoivne MS., No. 777.) 

" Noe hoggs are in my grounds " may refer to the Catch 
(if it be equally old) : — 

WHose three Hogs are these, and ivhose three Hoggs 
are these, 
They are John Cook's, / knoiv by their look, for I found 

them in my pease. 
Oh ! pound them : oh pound them ! But I dare not, for my 

life j 
For if I should pound John Cook's Hoggs, 1 should never 
kiss John Cook's ivife, tsfc. 

(Catch Club, 1705, iii. 46.) 



39^ Appendix. 

Pages 293, 358. Fetch me Ben Jonson's scull. 

In 1 641 this was printed separately and anonymously as 
" A Preparative to Studie ; or, the Vertue of Sack" 4to. 
Ben Jonson had died in August, 1637. Line 9 reads : 
dull Hyndc ; 21, Genius-making; 28, Welcome, by; 
after the word " scapes " these additional lines : — 

/ ivould not leave thee, Sack, to be with Jove, 

His Nectar is but faign' d, but I doe prove 

Thy more essentiall worth j I am (methinks), &c. 

Line 46, instead of " long since," reads " of late " (re- 
ferring to whom ?) ; 38, tempt a Saint j 44, farther bliss ; 
53, against thy foes (N.B.); That ivould; and, addi- 
tional, after " horse," in line 56, this historical allusion to 
David Lesley, of the Scotch rebellion : — 

Fme in the North already, Lasley's dead, 
He that ivould rise, carry the King his head, 
And tell him {if he aske, ivho killed the Scot) 
/ knock'' 't his Braines out ivith a pottle pot. 
Out ye Rebellious vipers j Fme come back 
From them againe, because there's no good Sack, 
T'other odd cup, &c. 

By this we are guided to the true date : between May, 
1639, and August, 1640. 

Pages 309, 399. Why should ive boast. 

Compare pp. 129, 315, of present volume, for the Anti- 
dote version and note upon it. Brief references must 
suffice for annotation here. See Mallory's " Morte 
d' Arthur," the French Lancelot du Lac, and Sir Tristram. 
Three MSS., the Auchinlech, Cambridge University, 
and Caius College, preserve the romance of Sir Bevis 
of Hamptoun, with his slaying the wild boar ; his sword 
Morglay is often mentioned, like Arthur's Excalibur : 
Ascapard, the thirty-feet-long giant, who after a fierce 
battle becomes page to Sir Bevis. Caius Coll. MS. and 
others have the story Richard Cceur de Leon, but the 
street-ballad served equally to keep alive his fame among 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 397 

the populace, Coll. Old Bds. iii. 17. Wm. Ellis gives 
abstracts of romances on Arthur, Guy of Warwick, Sir 
Bevis, Richard Lion-heart, Sir Eglamour of Artoys, Sir 
Isumbras, the Seven Wise Masters, Charlemagne and 
Roland, &c, in his Spec. Early English Metrical Ro- 
mances; of which J. O. Halliwell writes, in 1848: — 
" Ellis did for ancient romance what Percy had pre- 
viously accomplished for early poetry." In passing, we 
must not neglect to express the debt of gratitude due to 
the managers of the E. E. Text Soc, for giving scholarly 
and trustworty prints of so many MSS., hitherto almost 
beyond reach. For Orlando Inamorato and Orlando 
Furioso we must go to Boiardo and Ariosto, or the trans- 
lators, Sir John Harrington and W. Stewart Rose. 
Dunlop's Hist, of Fiction gives a slight notice of some of 
this ballad's heroes, including Huon of Bordeaux, the 
French Livre de Jason, Prince of the Myrmidons, the 
Vie de Hercule, the Cleopdtre, &c. Valentine and Orson 
is said to have been written in the reign of Charles VIII., 
and first printed at Lyons in 1495. SS. David, James, 
and Patrick, with the rest of the Seven Champions, like 
the Four Sons of Aymon, are of easy access. Cp. Warton. 



ARTHUR O'BRADLEY. 

(Merry Droll., Com., pp. 312, 395; Antidote ag. Mel., 16). 

Here is the five years' earlier Song of "Arthur o' 
Bradley," ('vide ante, pp. 166 — 175 ) never before reprin- 
ted, we believe, and not mentioned by J. P. Collier, W. 
Chappell, &c, when they referred to " Saw ye not 
Pierce the Piper" of Antidote and M. D., C, 1661. But 
ours is the earliest-known complete version [before 
1642 ?] : - 

A SONG. [p. 81.] 



A LL you that desire to merry be, 
■**- Come listen unto me, 
And a story I shall tell, 
Which of a Wedding befell, 



398 Appendix. 

Between Arthur of Bradley 
And Winifred of Madly. 
As Arthur upon a day 
Met Winifred on the way, 
He took her by the hand, 
Desiring her to stand, 
Saying I must to thee recite 
A matter of [ great ] weight, 
Of Love, that conquers Kings, 
In grieved hearts so rings, 
And if thou dost love thy Mother, 
Love him that can love no other. 
Which is oh brave Arthur, &c. 

For in the month of May, 
Maidens they will say, 

A May-pole we must have, [.'. date before 1642.] 
Your helping hand we crave. 
And when it is set in the earth, 
The maids bring Sullybubs forth ; [Syllabubs] 

Not one will touch a sup, 
Till I begin a cup. 
For I am the end of all 
Of them, both great and small. 
Then tell me yea, or nay, 
For I can no longer stay. 

With oh brave Arthur, &c. 

Why truly Arthur [,] quoth she, 
If you so minded be, 
My good will I grant to you, 
Or anything I can do. 
One thing I will compell, 
So ask my mothers good will. 
Then from thee I never will flye, 
Unto the day I do dye. 
Then homeward they went with speed, 
Where the mother they met indeed. 
Well met fair Dame, quoth Arthur, 
To move you I am come hither, 



Merry Drollery y 1680. 399 

For I am come to crave, [p. 83.] 

Your daughter for to have, 
For I mean to make her my wife, 
And to live with her all my life. 
With oh brave Arthur, &c. 

The old woman shreek'd and cry'd, 
And took her daughter aside, 
How now daughter, quoth she, 
Are you so forward indeed, 
As for to marry he, 
Without consent of me ? 
Thou never saw'st thirteen year, 
Nor art not able I fear, 
To take any over-sight, 
To rule a mans house aright : 
Why truly mother, quoth she, 
You are mistaken in me ; 
If time do not decrease, 
I am fifteen yeares at least. 

With oh brave Arthur, &c. 

Then Arthur to them did walk, 
And broke them of their talk. 
I tell you Dame, quoth he, 
I can have as good as thee ; 
For when death my father did call, 
He then did leave me all 
His barrels and his brooms, 
And a dozen of wo[o]den spoones, 
Dishes six or seven, 
Besides an old spade, even 
A brasse pot and whimble, 
A pack-needle and thimble, 
A pudding prick and reele, 
And my mothers own sitting wheele; 
And also there fell to my lot 
A goodly mustard pot. 

With O brave Arthur, &c. 

The old woman made a reply, 
With courteous modesty, 



400 Appendix. 

If needs it must so be, 
To the match I will agree. 
For [when] death doth me call, 
I then will leave her all ; 
For I have an earthen flaggon, 
Besides a three-quart noggin, 
With spickets and fossets five, 
Besides an old bee-hive ; 
A wooden ladle and maile, 
And a goodly old clouting paile ; 
Of a chaff bed I am well sped, 
And there the Bride shall be wed, 
And every night shall wear 
A bolster stufft with haire, 
A blanket for the Bride, 
And a winding sheet beside, 
And hemp, if he will it break, [p. 85.] 

New curtaines for to make. 
To make all [well] too, I have 
Stories gay and brave. 
Of all the world so fine, 
With oh brave eyes of mine, 
With oh brave Arthur, &c. 

When Arthur his wench obtained, 
And all his suits had gained, 
A joyfull man was he, 
As any that you could see. 
Then homeward he went with speed, 
Till he met with her indeed. 
Two neighbours then did take 
To bid guests for his sake ; 
For dishes and all such ware, 
You need not take any care. 
With oh brave Arthur, &c. 

To the Church they went apace, 
And wisht they might have grace, 
After the Parson to say, 
And not stumble by the way ; 
For that was all their doubt, 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 401 

That either of them should be out. 
And when that they were wed, 
And each of them well sped, 
The Bridegroom home he ran, 
And after him his man, [p. 86.] 

And after him the Bride, 
Full joy full at the tyde, 
As she was plac'd betwixt 
Two yeomen of the Guests, 
And he was neat and fine, 
For he thought him at that time 
Sufficient in every thing, 
To wait upon a King. 
But at the doore he did not miss 
To give her a smacking kiss. 
With oh brave Arthur, &c 

To dinner they quickly gat, 
The Bride betwixt them sat, 
The Cook to the Dresser did call, 
The young men then run all, 
And thought great dignity 
To carry up Furmety. 
Then came leaping Lewis, 
And he call'd hard for Brewis; 
Stay, quoth Davy Rudding, 
Thou go' st too fast with th' pudding. 
Then came Sampson Seal, 
And he carry'd Mutton and Veal ; 
The old woman scolds full fast, 
To the Cook she makes great hast, 
And him she did controul, 
And swore that the Porridge was cold. 
With oh brave, &c. 

My Masters a while be brief, 
Who taketh up the Beef ? 

Then came William Dickins, [p 87.] 

And carries the Snipes & Chickens. 
Bartholomew brought up the Mustard, 
Caster he carry'd the Custard. 

D D 



402 Appendix, 

In comes Roger Boore, 
He carry' d up Rabbets before : 
Quoth Roger, I'le give thee a Cake, 
If thou wilt carry the Drake, 
[l] Speak not more nor less, 
Nor of the greatest mess, 
Nor how the Bride did carve, 
Nor how the Groom did serve 
With oh brave Arthur, &cv 

But when that they had din'd, 

Then every man had wine $ 

The maids they stood aloof, 

While the young men made a proof, 

Who had the nimblest heele, 

Or who could dance so welL, 

Till Hob of the hill fell over, [?oe'r] 

And over him three or four. 

Up he got at last, 

And forward about he past ; 

At Rowland he kicks and grins, 

And he [? hit] William ore the shins ; 

He takes not any offence, 

But fleeres upon his wench. 

The Piper he play r d [a] Fadding, 

And they ran all a gadding. 

With oh brave Arthur [o' Bradley], &e. 

(" Wits Merriment," 1656, pp. 81-7.) 

The often mentioned " Arthur o' Bradley's Wedding," 
a modern version attributed to Mr. Taylor, the actor and 
singer, is given, not only in Songs and Ballads of the 
Peasantry, &c, (p. 139 of R. BelPs Annot. ed.), collected 
by J. H. Dixon ; but also in Berger's Red, White, and 
Blue Monster Songbook, p, 394, where the music arranged 
by S. Hale is stated to be " at Walker's." 

Pages 326, 402. Why should ive not laugh f 
The reference to "Goldsmith.'s Hall" (see p. 363), where 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 403 

a Roundhead Committee sate in 1647, an d later, for 
the spoliation of Royalists' estates, levying of fines and 
acceptance of " Compounders " money, dates the song. 



Pages 328, 402. Noiv <we are met. 

If we are to reckon the "twelve years together by the 
ears" from January 4, 1641-2, the abortive attempt of 
Charles I. to arrest at the House "the Five Members" 
( Pym, Hampden, Haslerig, Denzil Holies, and Strode), 
we may guess the date of this ballad to be 1653-4. Verse 
14 mentions Oliver breaking the Long Parliament (20th 
April, 1653 ) ; and verses 15, 16 refer to the Little, or 
" Barebones Parliament" July 4, to 2nd December, 1653, 
(when power was resigned into the hands of Cromwell). 
Shortly after this, but certainly before Sept. 3rd, 1654 
( when the next Parliament, more impracticable and 
persecuting, met), must be the true date of the ballad. 
" Robin the Fool " is "Robin Wisdom," Robert Andrews. 
"Fair" is Thomas Lord Fairfax the "Croysado-General." 
" Cowardly W — " is probably Philip, Lord Wharton, a 
Puritan, and Derby-House committee-man ; of inferior 
renown to Atkins in unsavoury matters ; but whose own 
regiment ran away at Edgehill : Wharton then took 
refuge in a saw-pit. President Bradshaiv died 22nd Nov., 
1659. Dr. Isaac Dorislaus, Professor of History at 
Cambridge, and of Gresham College, apostatized from 
Charles I., and was sent as agent by the Commons to 
the Hague, where he was in June, 1649, assassinated by 
some cavaliers, falsely reported to be commissioned by 
the gallant Montrose ( see the ballad " What though 
lamented, curst," &c, in King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus). 
" Askeiv" is " one Ascham a Scholar, who had been 
concerned in drawing up the King's Tryal, and had 
written a book," &c, (Clarendon, iii. 369, 1720). This 
Anthony Ascham, sent as Envoy to Spain from the Par- 
liament in 1649, was slain at Madrid by some Irish officers, 
( Rapin:) of whom only one, a Protestant, was executed. 
See Harl. Misc. vi. 236-47. All which helped to cause 
the war with Spain in 1656. 

D D 2 



404 Appendix. 

Harry Marten's evil repute as to women, and lawyer 
Oliver St. John's building his house with stones plun- 
dered from Peterborough Cathedral, were common topics. 
" The women's war," often referred to as the " bodkin 
and thimble army," of 1647, was so called because the 
"Silly women," influenced by those who "crept into their 
houses," gave up their rings, silver bodkins, spoons and 
thimbles for support of Parliamentary troops. 

Page 332, line 2, we should for Our read Only. 

Page 348, line 10. "Old Lilly." 

An allusion to William Lilly's predictive almanacks, 
shewing that this Catch was not much earlier in date 
than Hilton's book, 1652. Lilly was the original of 
Buder's "Cunning man, hight Sidrophel" in Hudi- 
bras, Part 2nd, Canto 3. Compare note, p. 353. 



Page 361 (Appendix), line 5. For misprint alterem, 
read alteram. 



Page 394 ( Appendix), Neiv England, isfc. 

References should be added to the Rump Coll., 1662, i. 95, 
and Loyal Songs, 1731, i. 92. "Isaack," is probably Isaac 
Pennington. Hampden and others were meditating this 
journey to Neiv England, until stopped, most injudiciously, 
by an order in Council, dated April 6, 1638. 

We here give our additional Note, on the " Sessions of 
the Poets," reserved from p. 376. 



405 

CJ 4& W 4m w 49 2) G? ^* t9 (w £» ^v w V3 %w *s3 $S 4& w ^v 

§ 3— SESSIONS OF POETS. 

We believe that Sir John Suckling's Poem, sometimes 
called "A Sessions of Wit," was written in 1636-7; 
almost certainly before the death of Ben Jonson (6th 
August, 1637). Among its predecessors were Richard 
Barnfield's " Remembrance of some English Poets," 
1598 (given in present volume, p. 273); and Michael 
Drayton's " Censure of the Poets," being a Letter in 
couplets, addressed to his friend Henry Reynolds; and 
the striking lines, " On the Time-Poets," pp. 5 — 7 of 
Choyce Drollery, 1656. The latter we have seen to be 
anonymous ; but they were not impossibly by that very 
Henry Reynolds, friend of Drayton; although of this 
authorship no evidence has yet arisen. Of George 
Daniel's unprinted " Vindication of Poesie," 1636-47, 
we have given specimens on pp. 272, '280-1, and 331-2. 
Later than Suckling (who died in 1642), another author 
gave in print " The Great Assizes Holden in Parnassus 
by Apollo and his Assessors :" at which Sessions are 
arraigned Mercurius Britannicus, &c, Feb. nth, 1644-5. 
This has been attributed to George Wither; most erro- 
neously, as we believe. The mis-appropriation has 
arisen, probably, from the fact of Wither' s name being 
earliest on the roll of Jurymen summoned : 

" Hee, ivho ivas called first in all the List, 
George Withers hight, entitled Satyristj 
Then Cary, May, and Davenant ivere called forth, 
Renoivned Poets all, and men ofivorth, 
Ifivit may passe for ivorth : Then Sylvester, 
Sands, Drayton, Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, 
Shakespeare, and Heywood, Poets good andfree x 
Dramatick ivriters all, but the first three: 
These ivere empanelVd all, and being snvorne 
A just and perfect 'verdict to return," &c. (p. 9.) 

George Wither was quite capable of placing himself 
first on the list, in such a manner, we admit; but it is 
incredible to us that, if he had been the author, he could 

DD 3 



406 Appendix. 

have described himself so insultingly as we find in the 
following lines, and elsewhere : — 

" he did protest 
That Wither ivas a cruell Satyrist ; 
And guilty of the same offence and crime, 
Whereof he ivas accused at this time : 
Therefore for him hee thought it fitter farre, 
To stand as a Delinquent at the barre, 
Then to bee now empanell'd in a Jury. 
George Withers then, tuith a Poetick fury. 
Began to bluster, but Apollo' sfrowne 
Made him forbear e, and lay his choler downe") 

(Ibid, p. II. 

Two much more sparkling and interesting "Sessions of 
Poets " afterwards appeared, to the tune of Ben Jonson's 
" Cook Laurel." The first of these begins : — 

Apollo, concern' d to see the Transgressions 

Our paltry Poets do daily commit, 
Gave orders once more to summon a Sessions, 

Severely to punish th* Abuses of Wit. 

Will d'Avenant would fain have been Steward o' the 
Court, 

To have fin' 'd and amerc'd each man at his will ; 
But Apollo, it seems, had heard a Report, 

That his choice of new Plays did show h? had no skill. 

Besides, some Criticks had ow'd him a spite, 
And a little before had made the God fret, 

By letting him know the Laureat did write 
That damnable Farce, ' The House to be Let.' 

Intelligence ivas brought, the Court being set 
That a Play Tripartite ivas very near made ; 

Where malicious Matt. Clifford, and spirituall Spratt, 
Were join* d with their Duke, a Peer of the Trade," &c. 

The author did not avow himself. It must have been 
written, we hold, in 1664-5. The second is variously 
attributed to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and to 
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, being printed in 
the works of both. It begins : — 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 407 

" Since the Sons of the Muses grerv numerous aud loud, 
For th* appeasing so factious and clamorous a croivd, 
Apollo thought fit in so iveighty a cause, 
T' establish a government, leader, and laivs, 33 ®c. 

Assembled near Parnassus, Dryden, Etherege, Wycher- 
ley, Shadwell, Nat Lee, Settle, Otway, Crowne, Mrs. 
Aphra Behn, Rawlins, Tom D'Urfey, and Betterton, are 
in the other verses sketched with point and vivacity ; but 
in malicious satire. It was probably written in 1677. 
Clever as are these two later "Sessions," they do not 
equal Suckling's, in genial spirit and unforced cheerful- 
ness. 

We need not here linger over the whimsical Trial of 
Tom D'Urfey and Tom Brown (who squabbled between 
themselves, by the bye ), in a still later " Sessions of the 
Poets Holden at the foot of Parnassus Hill, July the 9th, 
1696 : London, printed for E. Whitlock, near Stationers' 
Hall, 1696": — a mirthful squib, which does not lay claim 
to be called poetry. Nor need we do more than mention 
" A Trip to Parnassus j or, the Judgment of Apollo on 
Dramatic Authors and Performers. A Poem. London, 
1788" — which deals with the two George Colmans, 
Macklin, Macnally, Lewis, &c. Coming to our own 
century, it is enough to particularize Leigh Hunt's 
"Feast of the Poets;" printed in his "Reflector," 
December, 181 1, and afterwards much altered, generally 
with improvement (especially in the exclusion of the 
spiteful attack on Walter Scott). It begins — "'Tother 
day as Apollo sat pitching his darts" &c. In 1837 Leigh 
Hunt wrote another such versical review, viz., " Blue- 
Stocking Revels ; or, The Feast of the Violets." This 
was on the numerous "poetesses," but it cannot be 
deemed successful. Far superior to it is the clever and 
interesting " Fable for Critics," since written by James 
Russell Lowell in America. 

Both as regards its own merit, and as being the parent 
of many others ( none of which has surpassed, or even 
equalled it ), Sir John Suckling's " Sessions of Poets " 
must always remain famous. We have not space re- 
maining at command to annotate it with the fulness it 
deserves. 

D D 4 



408 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

The type-ornaments in Choyce Drollery reprint are 
merely substitutes for the ruder originals, and are not in 
facsimile, as were the Initial Letters on pages 5 and 7 of 
our Merry Drollery, Compleat reprint. 

Page 42, line 6, "a Lockeram Band:" Lockram, a 
cheap sort of linen, see J. O. Halliwell's valuable Dic- 
tionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, p. 525, edit. 
1874. To this, and to the same author's 1876 edition of 
Archdeacon Nares Glossary, we refer readers for other 
words. 

Page 73—77, 297, Marchpine, or Marchpane, biscuits 
often made in fantastic figures of birds or flowers, of 
sweetened almonds, &c. Scettuall, or Set'vwall, the 
Garden Valerian. Bausons, i.e. badgers. Cockers; 
boots. Verse fifth omitted from Choyce Drollery, runs : — ■ 
"Her features all as fresh above, 
As is the grass that grows by Dove, 

And lythe as lass of Kent ; 
Her skin as soft as Lemster wool, 
As white as snow on Peakish Hull, 
Or Swan that swims in Trent." 

A few typographical errors crept into sheet G (owing t« 
an accident in the Editor's final collation with original ), 
P. 81, line 2, read Blacke; line 20, Shaft; p. 85, line 3* 
Unlesse; p. 86, line 5, Physitian; line 17, that Lawyer's \. 
p. 87, line 9, That wil stick to the Laws ; p. 88, line 8, 
O that's a companion ; p. 90, first line, basenesse j line 
23, nature; p. 91, line 13, add a comma after the word 
blot; p. 94, line 13, Scepter; p. 96, line 10, Of this; {.. 
97, line 15, For feare; p. 99 line 6, add a comma; p- 
100, line 13, finde. These are all single-letter misprints. 

Page 269, line 14, for encreasing, read encreaseth j and 
end line 28 with a comma. 

I. H. in line 35, are the initials of the author, "Iohn 
Higins." 

Page 270, line 9, add the words—" It is by Sir Wm. 
Davenant, and entitled * The Dying Lover.' " 

Page 275, penultimate line, read Poet-Beadle. P. 277, 
1. 17, for 1698 read 1598. 



Merry Drollery, 1670. 409 

Page 281, line 20, for liveth, read lives ; claime. 

Page 289, after line 35, add — " Page 45, * As I ivent to 
Totnam.' This is given with the music, in Tom D'Ur- 
fey's Pills to purge Melancholy, p. 180, of 1700 and 
1719 (vol. iv.) editions; beginning "As I came from 
Tottingham.' The tune is named * Abroad as I was 
walking. Page 52, He that a Tinker ; Music by Dr. Jn. 
Wilson. 

Page 330, after line 10, add — " Fly, boy, fly : Music by 
Simon Ives, in Piayford's Select Ayres, 1659, p. 90." 

The date of "The Zealous Puritan," M.D.C., p. 95, 
was 1639. " He that intends/' &c, Ibid, p. 342, is the 
Vituperium Uxoris, by John Cleveland, written before 
1658 {Poems, 1661, p. 169). 

" Love should take no wrong," in Westminster- 
Drollery, 167 1, i. 90, dates back seventy years, to 1601 : 
with music by Robert Jones, in his Second Book of 
Songs, Song 5. 

Introduction to Merry Drollery (our second volume) 
p. xxii. lines 20, 21. Since writing the above, we have 
had the pleasure of reading the excellent " Memoir of 
Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland," and the " Althorp 
Memoirs," by G. Steinman Steinman, Esq., F. S. A., 
(printed for Private Circulation, 1 871, 1869); by the 
former work, p. 22, we are led to discredit Mrs. Jameson's 
assertion that the night of May 29, 1660, was spent by 
Charles II. in the house of Sir Samuel Morland at Vaux- 
hall. "This knight and friend of the King's may have 
had a residence in the parish of Lambeth before the 
Restoration, but as he was an Under Secretary of State 
at the time, it is more probable that he lived in London ; 
and as he did not obtain from the Crovun a lease of Vaux- 
hall mansion and grounds until April 19, 1675, the 
foundations of a very improbable story, whoever originated 
it, are considerably shaken." Mr. Steinman inclines to 
believe the real place of meeting was Whitehall. He 
has given a list of Charles II.'s male companions in the 
Court at Bruges, with short biographies, in the Arch&o- 
logia, xxxv. pp. 335-349. We knew not of this list when 
writing our Introduction to Choyce Drollery, 



4io 




The Phoenix (emblematical of the Restoration) is adapted 
from Spenser's Works, i6it. 



4ii 



TABLE OF FIRST LINES 

In " Merry Drollery," 1661, 1670, 1691 

(N oiv first added.) 

[The Songs and Poems peculiar to the first edition, 
1661 (having been afterwards omitted), are here dis- 
tinguished by being printed in Roman type. They are 
all contained in the present 'volume. Those that were 
added, in the later editions only, have no number attached 
to them in our first column of pages, viz. for 1661. The 
third edition, in 1691, was no more than a re-issue of the 
1670 edition, with a fresh title-page to disguise it, in pre- 
tence of novelty (see p. 345, ante). The outside column 
refers to our Reprint of the " Drolleries ;" but where the 
middle column is blank, as shewing the song was not re- 
peated in 1670 and 1691, our Reprint-page belongs to the 
present volume. The " Reserved Pieces," given only in 
Supplement, bear the letter " R " (for the extra sheet, 
signed R*).— Ed.] 

First Lines. [In Editions] 1661 

A Brewer may he a Burgess ... ii. 
'^ A fig for Care, why should we 

A Fox, a Fox, up gallants 

A Maiden of late, whose name ... 
A Pox on the Jaylor, and on his 

A Puritan of late 

A Session was held the other day 

A Story strange I will you tell ... ii. 

A young man of late 27 201 



1661 


1670 


1875 


70 


252 


252 




217 


217 


29 


38 


38 


160 


170 


170 




289 


289 


2 




195 


68 


72 


72 


12 


200 


200 



412 



Table of First Lines. 



A young man thafs in love 

A young man walking all alone 

After so many sad mishaps 

After the pains of a desperate Lover 

Ah, ah, come see what's 

All in the Land of Essex 

Am I mad, O noble Festus ? 

Amarillis told her swain 

Among the Purifidian sect 
Are you grown so melancholy ? ... 
Ashe me no more why there appears 
TVACCHUS Lam, come from ... 

rs? Be merry in sorrow 

Be not thou so foolish nice 

Blind Fortune, if 'thou wanfst ... 
Bring forth your Cunny-skins ... 
But since it was lately enacted . . . 
r^ all for the Master, oh, this ... 
^ Call George again, boy 
Calm was the evening, and clear 
Calm was the evening, and clear 
Cast your caps and cares aside . . . 
Come, Drawer, and fill us about 
Come, Drawer, some wine 
Come, Drawer, turn about the b. 
Come, Drawer, come, fill us 

Come, faith, let's frolick 

Come, hither, my own sweet . . . 
Come, Lmp Royal, come away . . . 
Come, Jack, let's drink a pot of Ale 
Come, let us drink, the time invites 





34 


42 


42 




32 




204 




112 


118 


118 






171 


171 




30 


40 


40 




48 


56 


56 


ii. 


5o 


234 


234 






8 


10 


ii. 


103 




243 


ii. 


101 


286 


286 




62 


70 


70 




61 


69 


69 




i b 


6 


8 




61 


69 


69 




163 


172 


172 


ii. 


8 


196 


196 


ii. 


24 


212 


212 






9 


11 


ii. 


118 


304 


3°4 






220 


220 






292 


292 




87 


92 


92 


ii. 


80 


263 


263 


ii. 


29 




237 


ii. 


86 


268 


268 


ii. 


3 


190 


190 


ii. 


65 


246 


246 


ii. 


106 




247 


ii. 


45 


231 


231 


* 


45 


52 


52 




93 


97 


97 



Table of First L ines. 413 



Come, lefs purge our brains 
Come, my dainty Doxies, my Dove 
Come, my Daphne, come away . . . 
Come, my delicate, bonny sweet . . . 
Cook Laurel would needs have . . . 
rediscoveries of late have been 

:'< Doctors, lay by your irkesome 
r?air Lady, for your New Year's 
Fetch me Ben Johnson's scull 
From Essex Anabaptist Laws . . . 
From hunger and cold, who lives 
From Mahomet and Paganisme 
From the fair Lavinian shore ... 
From what you calVt Town 
Full forty times over I have, &c. 
("^ ather your rosebuds while . . . 
^^ Go, you tame Gallants, 
God bless my good Lord Bishop... 
Good Lord, what a pass is this . . . 

TJ ad she not care enough 

*■ Hang Chastity I it is 

Have you observed the Wench . . . 
He is a fond Lover, that doateth 
He that a happy life would lead 
He that intends to take a wife . . . 
Heard you not lately of a man ... 
Herds a health unto his Majesty 

Hey, ho, have at all ! 

Hold, quaff no more 

How happy is the Prisoner 
How poor is his spirit 





114 


121 


121 


ii. 


44 


230 


230 




86 


9 1 


9i 




23 


34 


34 


ii. 


26 


214 


214 


ii. 


33 




R f 




4i 


48 


48 


ii. 


81 




R n 






293 


293 


ii. 


38 




241 


ii. 


9 


197 


197 




164 


174 


174 






291 


291 




191 


182 


182 


ii. 


61 




R 1 


ii. 


11 


199 


I99 


ii. 


57 


242 


242 




166 


176 


176 




75 


79 


79 






211 


211 




88 




220 


ii. 


141 


33 2 


332 


ii. 


62 




R 1 


ii. 


147 


339 


339 


ii. 


153 


342 


342 




169 


180 


180 






212 


212 




168 




R e 


ii. 


19 


210 


2IO 




IOI 


107 


107 


ii. 


48 


232 


232 



414 Table of First Lines. 



T am a bonny Scot, Sir 

/ am a Rogue, and a stout one 
I came unto a Puritan to woo . . . 
1 'doat, I doat, but am a sot 
I dreamt my Love lay in her bed 

I have reason to fly thee 

/ have the fairest Non-perel 
I loved a maid — she loved not me 
/ marvel, Dick, that having been 
I mean to speak of England's . . . 
I met with the Divel in the shape 
I pray thee, Drunkard, get thee . . . 
I tell thee, Kit, where I have been 
I went from England into France 
If any one do want a House . . . 
If any so wise is, that Sack 
If every wonian were served in her 
If none be offended with the scent 
If that you will hear of a ditty . . . 
If thou wilt know how to chuse . . . 

If you will give ear 

Fllgo no more to the Old Exchange 
III sing you a sonnet, that ne'er 
III tell thee, Dick, where I have 
Fll tell you a story, that never w.t. 
In Eighty-eight, e'er I was born 
In the merry month of May 
// chanced not long ago, as I was 
It was a man, and a jolly old man 
T adies, I do here present you ... 
^ J Lay by your pleading, Law . . . 





119 


127 


127 


ii. 


16 


204 


204 




73 


77 


77 


ii. 


53 


237 


237 




11 




197 


ii. 


97 


281 


281 


ii. 


99 


283 


283 


ii. 


151 




RP 




46 


54 


54 




85 




218 




103 


109 


109 


ii. 


119 


306 


306 






3i7 


3i7 




64 




213 


ii. 


64 




R m 


ii. 


157 


348 


348 




80 


85 


85 


ii. 


77 


259 


259 


ii. 


149 




253 




21 


32 


32 


ii. 


46 




Rg 




126 


i34 


134 






66 


66 




97 


IOI 


IOI 




123 


131 


131 




77 


82 


82 






99 


99 


ii. 


82 


264 


264 




95 




222 


ii. 


55 


240 


240 




118 


125 


125 



Table of First Lines. 



415 



11. 



11. 



Lay by your pleading. Love lies a 

Let dogs and divels die 

Let Souldiers fight for praise 

Let the Trumpet sound 

Lefs call, and drink the cellar dry 
Listen, lordings, to my story 
TV/fine own sweet honey bird 
**■ My bretheren all attend 
My Lodging is on the cold ground 

My Masters, give audience 

My Mistris is a shittle-cock 

My Mistris is in Musick 

My Mistris, whom in heart 
"VT#j>, out upon this fooling 

^ Nay, prithee, don 7 fly me .. 
Ne'er trouble thy self at the times 
Nick Culpepper and William Lilly 
No man Love's fiery passion 
No sooner were the doubtful people ii. 
Now, gentlemen, if you will hear 
Now I am married, Sir John ... ii. 
Now, 1 confess, 1 am in love 
Now Lamberfs sunk, and gallant 
Now thanks to the Powers below 
Now that the Spring has filled ... ii. 

Now we are met in a knot ii. 

r*\ that I could by any Chymick ii. 

^^ O the wily, wily Fox ii. 

Of all the Crafts that 1 do know 

Of all the rare juices 

Of all the Recreations, which . . . 



4 
3i 



191 

4i 



31 218 

142 333 

130 138 

32 
153 

9i 95 
290 

91 2 75 

51 60 

154 163 

107 113 

79 

25 



56 



11. 



84 
36 

219 

1 187 

58 243 

18 29 

96 280 

1 5 

12 

156 166 

no 296 

138 328 

3i 
114 300 

7 17 
178 
146 



191 

41 
218 

333 
138 

240 

95 
290 

275 

60 

163 

113 

84 
36 
219 
190 
187 
243 
29 
280 

7 

198 
166 
296 
328 

239 

300 

17 
178 
146 



4 1 6 Table of First L ines. 

Of 'all the Sciences beneath the Sun ii. 129 319 319 

Of all the Sports the world doth ii. 1 1 1 296 296 

Of all the Trades that ever I see ii. 40 225 225 

Of an old Souldier of the Queen's 20 31 31 

Oliver, Oliver, take up thy Crown ii. 72 254 254 

Once was I sad, till I grew to be 2 10 12 

T)ox take you, Mistris, I 71 be gone ii. 118 304 304 

A Pray, why should any man... ii. 87 270 270 

"D iding to London, in Dunstable 14 200 

Room for a Gamester ii. 10 197 197 

Room for the best Poets her oick ! 96 100 100 

Qaw you not Pierce the piper ... ii. 124 312 312 

^ She lay all naked in her bed... ii. 115 300 300 

She lay up to the navel bare ... ii. 116 r° 

She that will eat her breakfast ... ii. 120 308 308 

Shew a room, shew a room ii. 145 337 337 

Sir Eglamore, that valiant knight ii. 75 257 257 

Some Christian people all give ear 81 87 87 

Some wives are good, and some .. . 302 302 

Stay, shut the gate ! ii. 18 207 207 

Sublimest discretions have cluUd. . . 287 287 

t ~T^he Aphorisms of Galen ... ii. 94 277 277 

The best of Poets write of F. 141 153 153 

The Hunt is up, the Hunt is up 20 30 30 

The Proctors are two, and no more 105 in in 

The Spring is coming on 40 47 47 

The thirsty Earth drinks up ... 22 22 

The Turk in linnen wraps 13 25 25 

The Wise Men were but seven ... 232 232 

The World's a bubble, and the life 104 no no 

There dwelt a Maid in the C. g. 37 46 46 



Table of. First Lines. 



417 



There is a certain idle kind of cr. 

There was a jovial Tinker 

There was a Lady in this land . . . 
There was an old man had an acre 
There was three birds that built 
There was three Cooks in C 
There's a lusty liquor which 
There's many a blinking verse . . . 
Three merry Boys came out 
Three merry Lads met at the Rose 
'Tis not the Silver nor Gold 

To friend and to foe 

Tobacco that is withered quite . . . 
Tom and Will were Shepherd . . . 

T Tpon a certain time 

Upon a Summer's day 
WJake all you Dead, what ho ! 

* * Walking abroad in the m. 

We Seamen are the honest boys . . . 

What an Ass is he, Waits, &c. . . . 

What Fortune had L, poor Maid 

What is that you call a Maid. . . . 

What though the ill times do run 
What though the times produce 

When blind god Cupid, all in an 

When first Mardike was made ... 

When first the Scottish war 

When La Lady do intend to flatter ii. 

When L do travel in the night . 

When L'se came first to London 

When Phoebus had drest ... . 





140 


152 


152 




17 


27 


27 




134 




223 




44 


52 


52 




139 




R a 


ii. 


129 


3i8 


318 




132 


140 


I40 


ii. 


35 


221 


221 






220 


220 






143 


!43 




109 


115 


115 




38 


23 


23 




16 


26 


26 






149 


149 






146 


R b 




148 




230 






151 


151 




76 


81 


8l 




152 


162 


162 


ii. 


90 


273 


273 


ii. 


152 


34i 


341 


ii. 


68 


249 


249 




116 


124 


124 




161 




R d 


ii. 


2 


188 


188 




4 


12 


12 




89 


93 


93 


ii. 


158 


348 


348 


ii. 


73 


255 


255 


ii. 


*33 


323 


323 


ii. 


6 9 


250 


250 



E E 



4 1 8 Table of First L ines. 

When the chill Charokoe blows ... 155 164 164 

White bears have lately come . 

Why shonld a man care ... . 

Why should we boast 4/" Arthur 

Why should we not laugh ... . 

Will you hear a strange thing . 

you Gods, that rule upon 

You talk of New England . 
You that in love do mean to sport ii. 22 235 





149 


159 


159 


ii. 


146 


337 


337 


ii. 


122 


309 


309 


ii. 


136 


326 


326 




53 


62 


62 


ii. 


21 




233 


ii. 


84 


266 


266 



419 




First Lines of the " Antidote" Songs 

Given in this Volume (and not in M. D. C.J. 



[Present E 


.eprint,] Page 


A Man <?/"Wales, a little before Easter... 
An old house end ... 


••• 157 


- 153 


Bring out the [ c] old Chyne 


... 146 


Come, come away to the Tavern, I say ... 


... I50 


Come hither, thou merriest of all the Nine 


••• m 


Come, let us cast dice who shall drink 


... 151 


Drink, drink, all you that think ... 


... 158 


Fly boy, fly boy, to the cellar's bottom 


... 157 


Good Symon, how comes it 


••• 154 


Hang Sorrow, and cast away Care 


... 152 


Hang the Presbyter's Gill 


... 144 


He that a Tinker, a tinker will be 


... 52 


In love ? away ! you do me wrong 


... 147 


Ts not come here to tauke of Prut 


... 141 


yog on, jog on the foot-path-way 


... 156 


Lef s cast away Care 


... 152 


'Mongst all the pleasant juices 


... 150 


My Lady and her Maid 


... 152 


Never let a man take heavily 


... 151 


Not drunken nor sober 


... 113 


Of all the birds that ever I see 


... 155 



E E 2 



420 



Table of First Lines. 



Old Poets Hypocrin admire 
Once I a curious eye did fix 
The parcht earth drinks the rain . . . 
The wit hath long beholden been . . . 
There was an old man at Walton Cross 
This Ale, my bonny lads ... 
'Tis Wine that inspires ... 
Welcome, welcome, again to thy wit 
What are we met ? Come, lets see 
Why should we boast of Arthur . . . 
Wilt thou be fat ? Pie tell thee how 
Wilt thou lend me thy mare 
With an old song made by an old a. p. 
You merry Poets, old boyes 
Your mare is lame, she halts outright 



143 
139 
157 
135 
151 
155 
145 
159 
156 
129 

154 

153 

"5 
149 

153 



HERE 



421 




HERE the Editor closes his willing toil, (after 
having added a Table of First Lines, and a 
Finale, ) and offers a completed work to the friendly 
acceptance of Readers. They are no vague abstrac- 
tions to him, but a crowd of well-distinguished faces, 
many among them being renowned scholars and genial 
critics. To approach them at all might be deemed 
temerity, were it not that such men are the least to be 
feared by an honest worker. On the other hand, it 
were easy for ill-natured persons to insinuate accusa- 
tions against any one who meddles with Re-prints of 
Facetice. Blots and stains are upon such old books, 
which he has made no attempt to disguise or palliate. 
Let them bear their own blame. There are dullards 
and bigots in the world, nevertheless, who decry all 
antiquarian and historical research. A defence is un- 
necessary : " Let them rave !" 

Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa, 
Misericordia e giustizia gli sdegna, 
Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa. 

He thanks those who heartily welcomed the earlier 
Volumes, and trusts that no unworthy successor is to 
EE3 



422 Drolleries of the Restoration. 

be found in the present Conclusion, which holds many- 
rare verses. Hereafter may ensue another meeting. 
Our olden Dramatists and Poets open their cellars, 
full of such vintage as Dan Phoebus had warmed. 
Leaving these "Drolleries of the Restoration " behind 
him, as a Nest-Egg, the Editor bids his Readers 
cheerfully 

FAREWELL! 



* 



FINALE. 



423 



FINALE. 

" Laudator temporis acti " cant at : — 

I. 
C* LOSED now the book, untrimmed the lamp, 

Flung wide the lattice-shutter ; 
The night-breeze strikes in, chill and damp, 

The fir-trees moan and mutter : 
Lo, dawn is near ! pale Student, thou 

No count of time hast reckon'd ; 
Go, seek a rest for weary brow 
From dreams of Charles the Second. 

2. 

Sad grows the world : those hours are past 

When, jovially convivial, 
Choice Spirits met, and round them cast 

Such glow as made cares trivial ; 
When nights prolonged through following days 

Found night still closing o'er us, 
While Youth and Age exchanged their lays, 

Or intertwined in chorus. 

3- 
Our gravest Pundits of the Bench, 

Most reverend Sirs of Pulpit, 
Smiled at the praise of some coy wench, 

Or — if too warm — could gulp it. 



424 Drolleries of the Restoration. 

Loyal to King, faithful to Church, 

And firm to Constitution, 
No friend, no foe they left in lurch, 

Or sneaked to Revolution. 

4- 
There, many a sage Physician told 

Fresh facts of healing knowledge ; 
There, the dazed Bookworm could grow bold, 

And speak of pranks at College : 
There, weary Pamphleteers forgot 

Faction, debates, and readers, 
But helped to drain the clinking-pot 

With punning Special-pleaders. 

5- 
How oft some warrior, famed abroad 

For valour in campaigning, 
Exchanged the thrust with foes he awed 

For hob-a-nob Champaigning ! 
While some Old Salt, an Admiral 

And Circumnavigator, 
Joined in the revel at our call, 

Nor sheer'd-off three days later. 

6. 

Who lives to thrill with jest and song, 
Like those whose memories haunt us ? — 

Who never knew a night too long, 
Or head-ache that could daunt us. 

E E4 






Drolleries of the Restoration. 425 

The weaklings of a later day 

Win neither Mirth nor Thinking; 
They mix, and spoil, both work and play : 

They've lost the art of Drinking ! 

7- 
For me, I lonely grow, and shy, 

No one seems worth my courting ; 
Though girls have still a laughing eye, 

And tempt to May-day sporting : 
For sillier youth, or richer Lord, 

Or some staid prig, and colder, 
" Neat-handed Phillis " spreads the board, 

And Chloe bares her shoulder. 



In days gone by, light grew the task, 

For holidays were glorious ; 
It was the talk sublimed the flask, 

That now is deemed uproarious. 
We've so much Methodistic cant, 

Abstainers' Total drivel, 
And, worse, Utilitarian rant — 

One scarcely can keep civil. 

9- 

Our politics are insincere, 

For Statesmen cog and shuffle ; 

They hit not from the shoulder clear, 
But dodge, and spar with muffle. 



426 Drolleries of the Restoration. 

How Bench and Bar sink steeped in mire, 

Avails not here recording : 
While Prelates cannot now look higher 

Than to mere self-rewarding. 

10. 
Friends of old days, 'tis well you died 

Before, like me, you sickened 
Amid the rottenness and pride 

That in this world have quickened : 
You passed, ere yet your hopes grew dim, 

While Love and Friendship warmed you : 
I look but to th' horizon's rim, 

For all that erst had charmed you. 

II. 
Not here, amid a lower crew, 

I seek to fill your places ; 
For men no more have hearts as true, 

Nor maids, — though fair their faces. 
My thoughts flit back to earlier days, 

Where Pleasure's finger beckon'd, 
Cheered with the Beauty, Love, and Lays 

That warmed our Charles the Second. 

J. W. E. 

Biblioth. Ashmol.y Cantium, 1876. 

[End of " The ' Drolleries ' of the Restoration."] 



Drollery Reprints. 



Uniform with "Choice Drollery?' 

Published at ios. 6d. to Subscribers, now raised to 

2 is ; large paper, published at £i is, now 

raised to £2 2 s. 

A RE-PRINT 

OF THE 

Westminster Drollery, 

1671, 1672. 



TO those who are already acquainted with the 
two parts of the Westminster Drollery, published 
in 167 1 and 1672, it must have appeared strange that 
no attempt has hitherto been made to bring these de- 
lightful volumes within reach of the students of our 
early literature. The originals are of extreme rarity, 
a perfect copy seldom being attainable at any public 
sale, and then fetching a price that makes a book- 
hunter almost despair of its acquisition. So great a 
favourite was it in the Cavalier times, that most copies 
have been literally worn to pieces in the hands of its 
many admirers, as they chanted forth a merry stave 
from the pages. There is no collection of songs sur- 
passing it in the language, and as representative of the 
lyrics of the first twelve years after the Restoration 
it is unequalled : by far the greater number are else- 
where unattainable. 

The Westminster Drolleries are reprinted with 
the utmost fidelity, page for page, and line for line, 
not a word being altered, or a single letter departing 
from the original spelling. 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 



NOW READY. 




u Merry Drollery, Complete" 
1661, 1691. 



erry Drollery, Complete is not only 
amusing, but as an historical document is 
of great value. It is here reproduced, 
with the utmost exactitude, for students 
of our old literature, from the edition of 1691. The 
few rectifications of a corrupt text are invariably held 
within square brackets, when not reserved for the 
Appendix of Notes, Illustrations, and Emendations. 
Thirty-four Songs, additional, that appeared only in 
the 1 66 1 edition, will be given separately; the interme- 
diate edition of 1670 being also collated. A special 
Introduction has been prefixed, drawing attention to 
the political events of the time referred to, and some 
account of the authors of the Songs in this Merry 
Drollery. 

The work is quite distinct in character from the 
Westminster Drolleries, 1671-72, but forms an indis- 
pensable companion to that ten-years-later volume. 
Twenty-five songs and poems, that had not appeared 
in the 1661 edition, were added to the after editions 
of Merry Drollery ; but without important change 
to the book. It was essentially an offspring of the 
Restoration, the year 1660-61, and it thus gives us a 
genuine record of the Cavaliers in their festivity. 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

Whatever is offensive, therefore, is still of historical 
importance. Even the bitterness of sarcasm against 
the Rump Parliament, under whose rule so many 
families had long groaned ; the personal invective, 
and unsparing ridicule of leading Republicans and 
Puritans; Were such as not unnaturally had found 
favour during the recent Civil War and Usurpation. 
The preponderance of Songs in praise of Sack and 
loose revelry is not without significance. A few pieces 
of coarse humour, double entendre, and breaches of 
decorum attest the fact that already among the Cavaliers 
were spread immorality and licentiousness. The fault 
of an impaired discipline had borne evil fruit, beyond 
defeat in the field and exile from positions of power. 
Mockery and impurity had been welcomed as allies, 
during the warfare against bigotry, hypocrisy, and 
selfish ambition. We find, it is true, few of the 
sweeter graces of poetry in Choice Drollery and in 
Merry Drollery ; but, instead, much that helps us to a 
sounder understanding of the social, military, and 
political life of those disturbed times immediately 
preceding the Restoration. 

Of the more than two hundred pieces, contained in 
Merry Drollery, fully a third are elsewhere unattain- 
able, and the rest are scarce. Among the numerous 
attractions we may mention the rare Song of " Love 
lies a bleeding" (p. 191), an earnest protest against 
the evils of the day ; the revelations of intolerant 
military violence, such as The Power of the Sword 
(125), Mardyke (12), Pym's Anarchy (70), The Scotch 
War (93), The New Medley of the Country-man, 
Citizen, and Soldier (182), The Rebel Red-Coat (190), 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

and " Cromwell's Coronation" (254), with the masterly 
description of Oliver's Routing the Rump (62). Several 
Anti-Puritan Songs about New England are here, and 
provincial descriptions of London (95, 275, 323). 
Rollicking staves meet us, as from the Vagabond (204), 
The Tinker of Turvey (27), The Jovial Loyallist, with 
the Answer to it, in a nobler strain, by one who sees 
the ruinous vileness of debauchery (pp. 207, 209)3 and 
a multitude of Bacchanalian Catches. The two songs 
on the Blacksmith (225, 319), and both of those on 
The Brewer (221, 252), referring to Cromwell, are 
here; as well as the ferocious exultation over the Regi- 
cides in a dialogue betwixt Tower-hill and Tyburn 
(131). More than a few of the spirited Mad-songs 
were favourites. Nor are absent such ditties as tell 
of gallantry, though few are of refined affection and 
exalted heroism. The absurd impossibilities of a 
Medicine for the Quartan Ague (277, cf. 170), the sly 
humour of the delightful "How to woo a Zealous 
Lady" (77), the stately description of a Cock-fight 
(242), the Praise of Chocolate (48), the Power of 
Money (115), and the innocent merriment of rare 
Arthur o' Bradley's Wedding (312), are certain to 
please. Added, are some of the choicest poems by 
Suckling, Cartwright, Ben Jorison, Alexander Brome, 
Fletcher, D'Avenant, Dryden, Bishop Corbet, and 
others. "The Cavalier's Complaint," with the Answer 
to it, has true dramatic force. The character of a 
Mistress (60), shows one of the seductive Dalilahs who 
were ever ready to betray. The lampoons on D'Av- 
enant's "Gondibert" (100, 118) are memorials of 
unscrupulous ridicule from malicious wits. "News, 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

that's No News" (159), with the grave buffoonery of 
"The Bow Goose" (153), and the account of a Fire 
on London Bridge (87), in the manner of pious ballad- 
mongers (the original of our modern "Three Children 
Sliding on the Ice"), are enough to make Heraclitus 
laugh. Some of the dialogues, such as "Resolved not 
to Part" (113), The Bull's Feather" (i.e. the Horn, p. 
264), and that between a Hare and the hounds that 
are chasing him (296), lend variety to the volume ; 
which contains, moreover, some whimsical stories in 
verse, (one being "A Merry Song" of a Husbandman 
whose wife gets him off a bad bargain, p. 1 7 : compare 
p. 200), told in a manner that would have delighted 
Mat Prior in later days. 

It is printed on Ribbed Toned paper, and the Impres- 
sion is limited to 400 copies, fcap. 8vo. 10s. 6d. ; and 50 
copies large paper, demy 8vo. 21s. Subscribers' names 
should be sent at once to the Publisher, 

Robert Roberts, Boston, Lincolnshire. 

Every copy is numbered and sent out in the order 
of Subscription. 

lyiF This series of Re-prints from the rare Drolleries 
is now completed in Three Volumes (of which the 
first published was the Westminster Drollery)', that 
number being sufficient to afford a correct picture 
of the times preceding and following the Restoration 
1660, without repetition. The third volume con- 
tains " Choice Drollery" 1656, and all of the " Antidote 
against Melancholy" 1661, which has not been already 
included in the two previous volumes ; with separate 
Notes, and Illustrations drawn from other contempo- 
rary Drolleries. 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, &c. 

"Strafford Lodge, Oatlands Park, 

Surrey, Feb. 4, 1875. 
Dear Sir, 

I received the "Westminster Drolleries" 
yesterday evening. I have spent nearly the whole of this 
day in reading it. I can but give unqualified praise to the 
editor, both for his extensive knowledge and for his admi- 
rable style. The printing and the paper do great credit 
to your press. ... I enclose a post-office order to pay 
for my copy. 

Yours truly, 
Mr. Robert Roberts. Wm. Chappell." 



From J. 0. Halliivell, Esqre. 

"No. 11, Tregunter Road, West Brompton, 
London, S. W., 
Dear Sir, 25th Feby.. 1875. 

I am charmed with the edition of the 
" Westminster Drollery." One half of the reprints of the 
present day are rendered nearly useless to exact students 
either by alterations or omissions, or by attempts to make 
eclectic texts out of more than one edition. By all means 
let us have introductions and notes, especially when as 
good as Mr. Ebsworth's, but it is essential for objects of 
reference that one edition only of the old text be accurately 
reproduced. The book is certainly admirably edited. 
Yours truly, 
To Mr. R. Roberts. J. O. Phillipps." 



From F. J. Furni'uall, Esq. 

"3, St. George's Square, Primrose Hill, London, N.W., 

2nd February, 1875. 
My Dear Sir, 

I have received the handsome large paper 
copy of your "Westminster Drolleries." I am very glad 
to see that the book is really edited, and that well, by a 
man so thoroughly up in the subject as Mr. Ebsworth. 

Truly yours, 

F. J. F." 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

From the Editor of the "Fuller's Worthies Library," 
"Wordsworth's Prose Works," &c. 
" Park View, Blackburn, 

Lancashire, 13th July, 1875. 
Dear Sir, 

I got the " Westminster Drolleries " at 
once, and I will see after the " Merry Drollery " when 
published. 

Go on and prosper. Mr. Ebsworth is a splendid fellow, 
evidently. Yours, 

A. B. Grosart." 



J. P. Collier, Esqre., has also written warmly com- 
mending the work, in private letters to the Editor, which 
he holds in especial honour. 



From the "Academy," July 10th, 1875. 

" It would be a curious though perhaps an unprofitable 
speculation, how far the * Conservative reaction ' has been 
reflected in our literature Reprints are an impor- 
tant part of modern literature, and in them there is a 
perceptible relaxation of severity. Their interest is no 
longer mainly philological. Of late, the Restoration has 
been the favourite period for revival. Its dramatists are 
marching down upon us from Edinburgh, and the invasion 
is seconded by a royalist movement in Lincolnshire. A 
Boston publisher has begun a series of drolleries — in- 
tended, not for the general public, but for those students 
who can afford to pay handsomely for their predilection 
for the byways of letters. 

" The Introduction is delightful reading, with quaint 
fancies here and there, as in the ' imagined limbo of un- 
finished books.' .... There is truth and pathos in his 
excuses for the royalist versifiers who ' snatched hastily, 
recklessly, at such pleasures as came within their reach, 
heedless of price or consequences.' We may not admit 
that they were ' outcasts without degradation,' but we can 
hardly help allowing that e there is a manhood visible in 
their failures, a generosity in their profusion and unrest. 
They are not stainless, but they affect no concealment of 
faults. Our heart goes to the losing side, even when the 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

loss has been in great part deserved.' .... The fact is, 
that in his contemplation of the follies and vices of * that 
very distant time ' he loses all apprehension of their 
grosser elements, and retains only an appreciation of their 
wit, their elegance, and their vivacity. Without offence 
be it said, in Lancelot's phrase, 'he does something 
smack, something grow to ; he has a kind of taste,' — and 
so have we too, as we read him. These trite and ticklish 
themes he touches with so charming a liberality that his 
generous allowance is contagious. We feel in thoroughly 
honest company, and are ready to be heartily charitable 
along with him. For his is no unworthy tolerance of vice, 
still less any desire to polish its hardness into such facti- 
tious brilliancy as glistens in Grammont. It is a manly 
pity for human weakness, and an unwillingness to see, 
much less to pry into, human depravity. ' It would have 
been a joy for us to know that these songs were wholly 
speck must go hungry through many an orchard, even 
unobjectionable j but he who waits to eat of fruit without 
past the apples of the Hesperides.' .... The little book 
is well worth the attention of any one desirous to have a 
bird's-eye view of the Restoration ' Society.' Its scope is 
far wider than its title would indicate. The ' Drolleries ' 
include not only the rollicking rouse of the staggering 
blades who ' love their humour well, boys,' the burlesque 
of the Olympian revels in ' Hunting the Hare,' the wild 
vagary of Tom of Bedlam, and the gibes of the Benedicks 
of that day against the holy estate, but lays of a delicate 
and airy beauty, a dirge or two of exquisite pathos, homely 
ditties awaking patriotic memories of the Armada and the 
Low Country wars, and 'loyal cantons' sung to the 
praise and glory of King Charles. The ' late and true 
story of a furious scold ' might have enriched the budget 
of Autolycus, and Feste would have found here a store of 
' love-songs,' and a few ' songs of good life.' The collec- 
tion is of course highly miscellaneous. After the stately 
measure may come a jig with homely 'duck and nod,' or 
even a dissonant strain from the 'riot and ill-managed 
merriment ' of Comus, 

4 Midnight shout, and revelry, 
Tipsy dance, and jollity."' 



DROLLERY RE-PRINTS. 

From the "Bookseller/' March, 1875. 

" If we wish to read the history of public opinion we 
must read the songs of the times : and those who help us 
to do this confer a real favour. Mr. Thomas Wright has 
done enormous service in this way by his collections of 
political songs. Mr. Chappell has done better by giving 
us the music with them; but much remains to be done. 
On examining the volume before us, we are surprised to 
find so many really beautiful pieces, and so few of the 
coarse and vulgar. Even the latter will compare favour- 
ably with the songs in vogue amongst the fast men in the 
early part of the present century. 

The " Westminster Drolleries" consist of two collections 
of poems and songs siing at Court and theatres, the first 
published in 167 1, and the second in 1672. Now for the 
first time reprinted. The editor, Mr. J. Woodfall 
Ebsworth, has prefaced the volume with an interesting 
introduction . . . and, in an appendix of nearly eighty 
pages at the end, has collected a considerable amount of 
bibliographical and anecdotical literature. Altogether, 
ive think this may be pronounced the best edited of all the 
reprints of old literature, which are now pretty numerous. 
A word of commendation must also be given to Mr. 
Roberts, of Boston, the publisher and printer — the volume 
is a credit to his press, and could have been produced in 
its all but perfect condition only by the most careful atten- 
tion and watchful oversight." 



From the " Athencsum" April loth, 1875. 

" Mr. Ebsworth has, we think, made out a fair case in 
his Introduction for reprinting the volume without exci- 
sion. The book is not intended 'virginibus puerisque, but 
to convey to grown men a sufficient idea of the manners 
and ideas which pervaded all classes in society at the 

time of the reaction from the Puritan domination 

Mr. Ebsworth's Introduction is well written. He speaks 
with zest of the pleasant aspects of the Restoration 
period, and has some words of praise to bestow upon the 
'Merry Monarch' himself. . . . Let us add that his own 
"Prelude," "Entr' Acte," and "Finale" are fair speci- 
mens of versification." 








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